Build-bund plea at border guard meet

From telegraphindia OUR CORRESPONDENT

The Nagar river at Moragoti village . (Mehedi Hedaytullah) Islampur, Oct. 18: The BSF has proposed the construction of embankments along the border here to its counterparts in Bangladesh after three rivers gobbled up many of the demarcation pillars. According to BSF sources, the Mahananda, Nagar and the Karatowa are eating away land in North Dinajpur. The problem is spread over around 200km area of the border and needs to be addressed immediately. At a sector-level coordination meeting at Tentulia in Bangladesh on October 14, BSF deputy-inspector general of Kishanganj M.F. Khan has suggested that embankments should be constructed to protect the land and also to avoid any confusion over the territory in future as many boundary pillars have been washed away by the rivers. The proposal was placed before Mohammed Khairujjaman and Salem Ahmed, the two sector commanders of the BDR from Rangpur and Dinajpur districts. “At the meeting, we have pointed out that it is imminent to construct the embankments, otherwise it will be tough to earmark the boundaries of the two countries in future,” Khan said. “We have also discussed how hundreds of acres of farmland and tea plantations are being consistently eroded by the rivers flowing along the borders.” Residents of the affected areas said they had lost acres of land to the erosion, with no move of the government interfering so far. “Every year, I am losing three to four kathas of my farmland to the Karatowa river. If the trend continues, I think I would be landless within the next five years,” said Mainul Alam, a cultivator at Goalgach village in Chopra block. “It is high time that the government does something or else, hundreds like me will face similar consequences.” Biren Das, a small tea grower who hails from Islampur and has his plantation on the borders at Maragati village of district, spoke on similar lines. “I have lost four acres of my plantation because of the continuous erosion of the Nagar,” he said. “I have approached the administration at different levels with the request to check the erosion but nothing has been done so far.” The BSF officers said they had informed the joint river commission formed with the representatives of both the countries about the erosion. “We expect a positive outcome soon as the issue is related to both India and Bangladesh,” an officer said.