Joint border survey to resume today
The Indo-Bangla joint survey of the adversely possessed lands (APL) along the Meghalaya-Sylhet frontier will resume today.
The officials took the decision yesterday after a series of view exchange meetings with the people of bordering villages in the last few days.
The joint survey on the said borders remained suspended since 20 June in the face of protest by border people at several places. Besides, the work was suspended in January and in April.
On return from the borders, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Revenue, of Sylhet Ahmed Shamim Al Razi told this correspondent yesterday that the survey would resume on the Lynkhat-Sonarhat area, close to the much talked Padua frontier today.
Our survey team is ready for the job while the Indian team from Meghalaya is expected to reach the spot in time, he added.
Two more separate meetings with the bordering village people were held yesterday -- one at Zila Parishad Rest House at Naljur, near Tamabil border and the other at Hajipur Bazar, near the Padua borders.
Additional Deputy Commissioner, General, Md Mizanur Rahman, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Revenue, Ahmed Shamim Al Razi, Upazila Nirbahi Officer of Gowainghat Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury and UNO of Jaintapur talked with the local leading people.
The officials assured the locals that there was no such decision to hand over their lands to the Indians.
But we need to survey border lands since things remained unsettled for decades. Both India and Bangladesh want a peaceful solution to the longstanding border problems, they told the locals.
Local people expressed their fear and agony telling how the Indians including tribesmen as well as the BSF had been causing trouble for the Bangladesh border people for long.
The intruders even took away crops from Bangladesh territory and looted forests and fishes of the water bodies regularly, they said. The joint survey must be done in a transparent way, they pointed out.
Apprehending that their lands might be handed over to the Indians, the frontier people had been opposing it since the beginning of the survey.
Under the banner of 'conscious citizens of border' they staged human chains and protest rallies at different bordering upazilas till 30 June. The upazilas are Gowainghat, Jaintapur, Kanaighat, Companiganj and Jakiganj.
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