The joint survey of the disputed India-Bangladesh border along the Meghalaya stretch, that resumed on Tuesday after three months, was stalled yet again following differences between officials of two sides.
The joint survey of the disputed India-Bangladesh border along the Meghalaya stretch, that resumed on Tuesday after three months, was stalled yet again following differences between officials of two sides.
Though survey officials of both sides had decided to resume the exercise yesterday at the disputed tracts of Muktapur and Pyrdiwah bordering Bangladesh’s Sylhet district, differences surfaced on the mandate of the survey, officials said.
An official told PTI the Bangladeshi side were refusing to recognize 'adverse possession lands' (APLs) held by India like those tracts in Muktapur and Pyrdiwah, and they pressed for a survey of the border pillars instead.
Discussions were on between the survey officials of both sides, but no headway has been achieved, the source said.
The joint verification of the disputed Meghalaya-Bangladesh border had began in the first week of December last but remained suspended since December 16 due to roadblocks posed by locals and the border guarding forces.
Miscreants armed with sharp weapons confronted the joint team of survey officials several times after the survey began on December 7, bringing to halt the exercise.
The Bangladeshi officials are obstructing the survey at those stretches which are adversely held by India like Muktapur, Lyngkhat and Pyrdiwah, the sources said, adding that the BDR men claimed before the survey officials that those land belonged to Bangladesh and were not disputed.
The exercise, which was mooted by the Joint Boundary Working Group during its meeting in New Delhi in November 2009, is being conducted by survey and land records officials of Bangladesh and Meghalaya.
In that meeting, it was decided that BDR and BSF would provide 'outside security' to the officials conducting the survey.
The verification was mooted in 12 disputed patches bordering Meghalaya, stretches of which are under ‘adverse possession’ of either countries.
According to official records, currently there are 551.8 acres of Bangladeshi land under “adverse possession” of India (Assam and Meghalaya) while 226.81 acres of Indian land are under adverse possession of Bangladesh.
The areas under adverse possession, 12 in Meghalaya sector, came up when the two countries demarcated the international boundary in the mid-1960s.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}