The matter came to notice when, the deputy commissioner of Karimganj, Dr M Angamuthu personally visited the area recently for inspecting the construction works of barbed-wire fencing and border roads of Indo-Bangla border areas, official sources said. The National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC), which has been doing the construction work, is alleged to have wrongly set up the barbed-wire fencing in the border areas due to which about 300 acres of Indian land, i.e. 1000 bighas of Indian Madanpur tea garden has been occupied by Bangladeshis. The district administration sources said that Bangladeshi tea garden ‘Pallartal’ had even threatened the Indians of awful results if the Madanpur tea garden tried to take back their land. NBCC, while constructing the fence had wilfully kept the occupied area outside the Indian border and this proved to be a good opportunity for the Bangladeshis. Since there was no help from BSF the Madanpur tea-garden filed a case at the Gauhati High Court, but the matter is still pending.

It may be noted that in the Madanpur area the border fence has been set up at a distance of 1 km from the border. According to the norms it should have been from the zero-point of the border to 150 yards in distance.

Talking to this correspondent some district administrative officials and some top leaders of various political parties said that the issue has to be solved by the Government and demanded answers from NBCC as to why it committed this mistake. To answer the query there were no designated officials of NBCC present. The additional deputy commissioner (ADC) of Karimganj, who accompanied the DC during inspection, informed that the setting up of fencing was to be done in three phases. The places where marking had been done for the first phase, had been most probably rightly fenced. The Nilambazar circle officer Dhrubajyoti Dev clarified that as this border place is in zigzag area and surrounded by bushes, so to cut on the expenditure NBCC must have intentionally wrongly fenced the borders.

The Karimganj DC has also expressed his deep concern and dissatisfaction on the use low quality construction material. The iron-angles used for barbed-wire fencing are also weak and not fitted properly and as such it is unstable. Besides this, the mismanagement of the border guarding and watching system is also of serious concern which has led to easy penetration of Bangladeshis across the border. Administration sources informed that due to border mismanagement the Bangladeshis enter India, do their day-long work and later, in the day return back to Bangladesh.

BSF sources said that due to huge unprotected and unguarded areas across the border areas of Karimganj district, it is not possible for them to thwart infiltration. The DC said that he would make all sorts of arrangements for the greater development and for the tight security of border area. The whole matter would be informed immediately to the Ministry of Home Affairs shortly– sources said.

Talking to this correspondent, the border villagers held the BSF responsible for the present situation wherein the Indian land, fisheries, tea gardens etc. are being captured by Bangladeshis because of the ‘indulgence’ between BSF and Bangladeshis. The villagers also held the State and Central Governments responsible and asked the latter should take immediate corrective steps regarding the matter.