Tripura villagers protest fencing with Bangladesh, but administration going ahead

Ignoring resistance from villagers, the Sepahijala district administration in India's northeastern state of Tripura has decided to go ahead with the ongoing barbed wire fencing with Bangladesh.

The villagers have strongly protested the fencing project in between Kulubari and NC Nagar area of Sonamura in western Tripura opposite to Bangladesh's Comilla region.

The villagers for the past few years have been demanding adequate compensation for loss of land and asked the governments to fencing on the zero line instead of 150 yard inside the Indian territory.

After a long interruption, Sonamura Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Panna Ahmed has started pushing the stalled barbed wire fencing work in some specific patches of the border to which the local people objected.

The fencing caused tension during the past few days and there have been few rounds of talks between the protesting villagers and state administration but in vain.

Of the 80 km Indo-Bangladesh border in the district, a patch of around 10 km patches along the border still remain unfenced due to local problems.

Borderguards say this area is infested with smugglers but locals say their livelihood is at stake if the area is fenced off from Bangladesh.

In the meeting, some villagers demanded that the fencing should come up along the zero line to save their property.

"We want it to be raised on the zero line and we shall not object to it,rather lend a helping hand to the government to raise the entire fencing," said Ahid Mia, a protesting villager whose entire farm land and house over 4 hectares will fall outside the fence if raised.

"Our objection against the fencing is because our entire land will fall outside the fence. So, we demand compensation.  We also want rehabilitation, alternative livelihood."

However, the SDM said these are issues that can only be sorted out at higehst levels of India and Bangladesh government.

The villagers also demanded full compensation for land that fell outside the barbed fencing.

Ahmed said the Tripura state government "is trying its best to provide compensation" but emphasized it suffered from 'obvious limitations."

"Until now, there has been no communication from New Delhi," he said.

The barbed wire fencing work between Kulubari and NC Nagar is continuing amidst tight security as the state government want to fence the unfenced border in keeping with federal directives.

Delhi is keen to finish the fencing of the 4,096-km border with Bangladesh and has asked the Tripura government to complete its part.

Tripura has a 856-km border with Bangladesh—only about ten percent of the fencing remains to be completed on this border.