Admin's bid to allay fear of border people
View exchange on survey today
In a bid to gain confidence of the border people who had been protesting the joint survey, the district administration has organised a view exchange meeting this afternoon at Jaintapur upazila headquarters.
People from Jaintapur and Gowainghat upazilas are expected to join the discussion.
Joint survey of the Sylhet-Meghalaya border which began 7 December last year came to a halt 20 June after the inhabitants of Sonarhat (Padua-Protappur) border staged agitation fearing that over 50 acres of their land would be handed over to the Indians.
The incident occurred when the surveyors set some temporary pillars on points near Tamabil on 19 June and on Padua borders the following day.
Since then, organised groups of locals are guarding those border areas.
Assistant director of survey Dabir Uddin Ahmed told this correspondent yesterday afternoon that they are yet to get any green signal from the high-ups to resume the survey.
Contacted, the deputy commissioner of Sylhet Abu Syed Mohammad Hashim said that the border people were misled by wrong information.
“We hope the view exchange meetings would remove their misunderstandings.”
Although it was first scheduled to complete the survey work by 15 January, the authorities had to extend time thrice.
Meanwhile, a few groups of locals, backed by the Opposition, announced sit-in on the border upazilas from today to protest what they said the government bid to hand over lands to the Indians in the name of joint survey.
The sit-in will be held 27 June in Companiganj, 29 June in Jaintapur and Gowainghat and on 30 June in Jakiganj border upazilas.
In the face of protests by hundreds of Bangladesh nationals on Tamabil, Sonarhat, Amswapnapur, Naljur, Dibir Haor and other borders during the last two weeks, the survey officials of Meghalaya and Bangladesh had to suspend their job, said Dabir Uddin.
“We faced much trouble while trying to survey the lands close to the Tamabil International Check Post as those were claimed by the Indians,” he said.
Prior to the recent protests by the locals, stalemate prevailed for months as Bangladesh officials could not agree with the Indians over survey points on the adversely possessed lands (APL) on different borders in the region.
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