Tripura: Border fencing gains pace amid fear of Covid19 spread from Bangladesh

As neighbouring Bangladesh has been considered to be one of the worst-hit countries of the globe, the Tripura government has rolled their sleeves up to finish the leftover work of barbed wire fencing at the Indo-Bangla borders of Tripura. Only, on Sunday altogether 9 people including a doctor, BSF Jawans and a couple of officials of Akhaura Integrated Check Post tested positive to the COVID 19.

The incident prompted the Land Port Manager Debasish Nandi to issue a notice to bring all the activities in the Land Port to a standstill. But, the intriguing part, many feel was that there were strong possibilities of the contagion to enter the community transmission phase here in Tripura if unabated trans-border activity continue.

Meanwhile, the central Home Ministry has already directed the concerned officials to install the fencing as earliest as possible. Subsequently, the Sepahijala District Administration had also initiated the process to complete fencing in the left overstretch of 8.8 kilometres swiftly.

But, what emerged as a strong impediment was the resistance on the part of local owing to the complexities of the land acquisition process. After the very first meeting presided over by the District Magistrate on May 13 last but the process of setting up the fencing once again halted after facing serious resentment by the locals on land acquisition issue.

Also read: Tripura: Doctor, BSF jawans test positive for COVID-19, alarms state

In order to resolve the problems, District Magistrate CK Jamatia once again on Monday paid visits to the areas and exchanged views with the stakeholders. During his visit he settles a number of claims in cash to resolve the land disputes regarding the fencing issues. Almost, all the areas where people found to be disappointed with land acquisition process were covered during his Monday visit.

“All of the people who had got their money today were asked to shift within five days. As soon as the lands would be cleared there would be nothing left that cause a problem on the issue”, a source in Tripura said.

A mosque that falls in the line of the fencing had also posed a serious problem. But, it had been decided in the meeting that the Bangladesh authorities would be requested to keep the mosque within the Indian Authorities. Not less than  600 people offer Namaz in the mosque, the source said.   

Readers like you make Inside Northeast’s work possible.

To support our brand of fearless and investigative journalism, support us HERE.

Download:

The Inside Northeast app HERE for News, Views, and Reviews from Northeast India.

Do keep following us for news on-the-go. We deliver the Northeast.