Tripura: Congress protests against Bangladesh embankment

Seeking the Union government’s intervention, the opposition Congress on Saturday organised a demonstration along the India-Bangladesh border areas in northern Tripura’s Unakoti district to protest the construction of an embankment by the neighbouring country along the boundary.

According to senior Congress leader and former Minister Birajit Sinha, who has been spearheading against the controversial embankment, the Bangladesh government now unilaterally constructing an embankment on its land, and the embankment may endanger the district town of Kailashahar and border villages during monsoon floods.

Sinha, former President of the state Congress, said that some portions of the mega embankment touched the ‘zero line’, violating the guidelines of the two countries.

Saying that he would talk to Chief Minister Manik Saha to take up the matter with the Centre, alleged that the Bangladesh government also violated the Indira-Mujib pact.

Hundreds of Congress leaders and supporters participating in the demonstration shouted slogans against the Bangladesh government and urged the Indian government to take up the matter with the neighbouring country at the earliest.

While talking to the media, Sinha said: “Considering the danger of Tripura’s important district town and bordering villages, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the concerned Indian minister must take up the issue with the Bangladesh government so that the embankment construction can be stopped.”

The Congress leader said that the Bangladeshi smugglers recently attacked the BSF jawans while they were patrolling the bordering areas in the Unakoti district.

Meanwhile, Tripura Chief last week met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi and handed over a letter to him on the embankment issue.

“The Chief Minister in his letter to the Home Minister, highlighted the potential effect of the Bangladeshi embankment in Unakoti district and possible floods on the Indian side. The Chief Minister has urged the Home Minister to take up the matter with the Bangladesh government to take appropriate steps by the neighbouring country,” an official said.

District Magistrate Dilip Kumar Chakma and a team of engineers from the Water Resources Department of the Tripura government last week separately visited the bordering areas of Unakoti district to study the controversial embankment, being constructed by the Bangladesh government in the Sharipur and Devipur areas under the Moulvibazar district of the neighbouring country.

The under-construction embankment, 20 feet in height and 10 feet in width is now being constructed along the Manu River, which divides the two countries.

“As per the Indira-Mujib pact, signed on March 19, 1972, and according to the 1975 Joint India-Bangladesh guidelines for border authorities, no structure unilaterally can be constructed within 150 yards from the zero line of the international boundary by either side,” the official said.

There is an embankment on the Indian side, constructed several decades ago, more than 350 yards from the zero line but the height of that old embankment is very low.

“The height of the embankment on our side has to be raised substantially otherwise district town Kailashahar and many border villages would be submerged by the flood water during monsoon,” the official pointed out.

Congress leader Sinha, also a MLA, raised the embankment issue in the just concluded winter session of the Tripura Assembly and urged the state government to take up the matter with the Centre.