M A I N   N E W S

B’desh officials’ Assam visit sparks protests
Bijay Sankar Bora/TNS

Guwahati, June 24
A visit by a team of revenue officials from Bangladesh to Hatsingrimari Revenue Circle in bordering Dhubri district of Assam to carry out ‘inspection of border pillars’ with their counterparts in Assam (India), has sparked a series of protects in Assam because of the apprehension that it could be the beginning of the process to hand over Assam’s land to Bangladesh as per the land-swap pact inked by both the countries during the last Dhaka visit of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on September 6 last year.

The Opposition Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) has dashed off a memorandum to President Pranab Mukherjee seeking his intervention to stop any transfer of Assam’s land to Bangladesh as per the India-Bangladesh land swap agreement signed last year.

The AGP flayed the on-going inspection of the Indo-Bangla border at Mankachar area in Dhubri district of Assam by a team of Bangladesh officials. Members of the AGP’s local district unit even held protest demonstration in front of the government guest house where Bangladesh officials were present and burnt effigies of the Prime Minister and Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.

In a statement issued to the media the AGP leadership said, “It (leadership) vehemently opposes the Assam government decision to allow a team of revenue officials from Bangladesh to inspect the international border in Dhubri district at a time there have been vociferous protests in Assam against the Government of India’s intention to hand over Assam’s land to Bangladesh as per the land swap deal between the two countries.”

Land pact

CM Tarun Gogoi claims that the land pact will provide Assam with 1,240 acres of disputed border land while Bangladesh will get only 357.4 acres. He said Bangladesh would get 193 acres of adversely possessed land at Boraibari in Mankachar sector of Dhubri district and 74.5 acres land out of total 455 acres in Pallathal Tea Estate in Karimganj district