The Jalpaiguri district administration will soon conduct a land survey at four villages in Sadar block to identify land required for the installation of fences and the construction of a road along the India-Bangladesh border.

Ever since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government, residents of the border villages have been demanding the erection of fences for their safety.

“We are in constant touch with the state land and land reforms department and will initiate the land survey soon. The land records of these villages will be updated and in due course, necessary land will be acquired and handed over to the BSF (for the fences and the road),” said Shama Parveen, the district magistrate of Jalpaiguri.

There are four villages in the Sadar block — Naotori-Debottar, Boroshoshi, Chilahati, and Kajaldighi — which were formally included in the Indian map during the land boundary agreement signed with Bangladesh in 2015. A stretch of 13km of the border along these villages does not have fences till date.

Over the past few weeks, residents of these villages have demanded that the state should acquire land and expedite the process for the installation of fences.

“We have surveyed on our own and have found that there is no problem in land acquisition in some stretches. If it is done, fences can be immediately put up in around seven of 13km,” said Sarada Prasad Das, the secretary of South Berubari Simanta Nagarik Samiti.

Sources in the district land and land reforms department said once the survey is carried out, parcels of land would be formally included in the land records of the state.

“A rough estimation shows that in Naotori-Debottar, around 650 acres would be included in the records. In the remaining three other villages, another 1,000 acres would be included in the records,” said a source.

Palenchandra Barman, a resident of Boroshoshi, said they would reach the district magistrate’s office on August 27 to press their demand. He said a group of Bangladeshis had assembled near the zero point in the unfenced area to seek refuge in India a few days back.

“The BSF managed to send them back. But as it is an unfenced area, we are spending nights amid tension and want the fences to come up at the earliest,” Barman said.

BSF visit

Ravi Gandhi, the additional director-general of the BSF’s eastern command, reviewed the operational preparedness and the security scenario at the border on Friday.

Gandhi is heading the committee constituted by the Union home ministry to monitor the situation at the India-Bangladesh border. He reached the Gopalpur sector headquarters of the Guwahati frontier of the BSF in Cooch Behar and was briefed by senior officers.

“The briefing focussed on the current issues like the unrest in Bangladesh, along with strategies to prevent infiltration and trans-border crimes and plans to ensure safety and security at the border,” said a source.

Gandhi also visited some border outposts and interacted with the BSF personnel posted there.