75 Bigha land recovered

The Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) has recovered 75 Bighas of land in Chuadanga that was under Indian occupation for almost 66 years.

A BGB team led by Chuadanga 6 Battalion Director Lt Col SM Moniruzzaman put flags around the land, which is near the Ichamati River, on Saturday morning.

Lt Col Moniruzzaman said the land, starting from main pillar 61/3-S to 61/9-S, just opposite the Benipur border outpost in Jibannagar, had been controlled by India since 1949.

“BGB demarcated the border around the land as the Indian authorities failed to produce any legal documents showing the right to that land,” he said.

“The land will be given to landless families from the Chuadanga district administrator’s office,” he said.

The BGB official said the land was occupied by Santal and Hindu community before the partition in 1947. They left for India in 1949 and since then India had kept the land, claiming it was land in adverse possession.

BGB inquired at Chuadanga’s land record office and found that 65 Bighas of that land was listed under the deputy commissioner’s Khatian number 1 and another 10 Bighas were listed as private property in a record from 1962.

Last year BGB undertook efforts to recover the land through discussions with the Indian border force, local administration and residents of the area.

Land office and district administration officials were present when BGB took possession of the land.

In 2010, the Chuadanga district administration sent a team to inspect the land and submitted a report to the director general of land.

Chuadanga district administration sent a letter in 2011 to the Nadia district magistrate in India inviting them to a meeting on land under adverse possession and several other border issues, but the Indian authorities have not responded.