Border Gets in Order

Dhaka, Delhi start signing strip maps

Tarique Ahmed Karim, sitting left, Bangladesh high commissioner to New Delhi, and Rajeet Mitter, sitting right, Indian high commissioner to Dhaka, sign a map for demarcating Bangladesh's border with West Bengal at Directorate of Land Record and Survey in the city yesterday. Photo: STAR

AT A GLANCE
*Total border 4156 km, 1,129 strip maps
* Disputes at 25 points
*Dhaka possesses 1,880.80acre at seven points
*India possesses 1,165.49acre at 18 points

Dhaka and New Delhi have started signing boundary strip maps to settle disputes along the 4,156 kilometre border between the two countries ahead of the Indian prime minister's Bangladesh visit.

The two nations yesterday inked a map for demarcating Bangladesh's border with West Bengal.

Of the 4,156 km borderline, 320 km border with the Indian state of Mizoram had been drawn earlier. Land surveyors of both the countries have been working on the rest of the borderline, and so far finalised 1,083 maps for 3829.5 km of the borderline except 6.5 km strips along Panchagarh, Moulvibazar and Feni.

The remaining 6.5 km boundary line will be drawn in a month, said Abdul Mannan, director general of Directorate of Land Record and Survey (DLRS).

Tarique Ahmed Karim, Bangladesh high commissioner to New Delhi, and Rajeet Mitter, Indian high commissioner to Dhaka, signed the map yesterday at the DLRS in the capital.

A strip map is a simple drawing of a route to include critical points along the border, roadside features and town facilities. It usually incorporates distances.

"There won't be any change in the boundary line drawn earlier. But these maps will end all the border disputes," said the DLRS director general.

“Hopefully, all the maps will be signed in a month," said Abdul Mannan.

Both the countries will have four signed copies of the maps each.

He said one copy will be kept at the foreign affairs ministry, one at the home ministry, one at the DLRS and another at the National Archive of Bangladesh.

"We did not discuss the enclaves."

The prime ministers of the two nations will decide on 111 Indian enclaves (17,160 acres of land) with a population of 37,000 and 51 Bangladeshi enclaves (7,110 acres of land) with a population of 14,000 during Manmohan Singh's Bangladesh visit on September 6-7.

The two countries have disputes over land at about 25 points in West Bengal, Tripura, Meghalaya and Assam. Bangladesh adversely possesses 1,880.81 acres of India's land at seven points while India adversely possesses 1,165.49 acres of Bangladesh land at 18 points.

A total of 628 maps have been drawn for 2,262 km border with West Bengal, 93 maps for 264 km border with Assam, 20 maps for 320 km border with Mizoram, 269 maps for 874 km border with Tripura, and 139 maps for 436 km border with Meghalaya.

India and Pakistan surveyed jointly to draw borders after the partition in 1947. But they stopped it after diplomatic relations between the two countries deteriorated in 1962.

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi signed Bangladesh-India Land Boundary Agreement in 1974 to demarcate the border between the two countries. But the demarcation process was later halted.

The issue came to the fore during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's India visit last year. The two countries have been working to settle all border disputes since then.

When asked about barbed-wire fencing by the Indian authorities along the border, the director general said they put up fences 150 metres inside their territory.

"So, it is not a matter of concern for us till now," said Abdul Mannan.

Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, Home Minister Shahara Khatun, and Land Minister Rezaul Karim Hira, State Minister for Land Mustafizur Rahman, Chief of Indian border cell Maj Gen Girish Kumar, and the chiefs of Bangladesh Border Guard and Indian Border Security Force were also present at the signing.