BY TC News Desk
Agartala, 31st March 2025: Leader of Opposition Jitendra Chaudhury today wrote a letter to the Chief Minister Prof.Dr. Manik Saha seeking his intervention in to resolving the problems of more than five hundred religious minority citizens of 85 families living on zero line of Tripura-Bangladesh border in Pandavpur and Fultali Gram Panchayats under West Tripura district.
In the letter, the LoP said that due to the construction of barbed wire fence on the India-Bangladesh border, these families have faced multifaceted problems.
He described that on March 27, without any prior notice, the district administration took steps to disconnect the electricity connection of these families.
“Yesterday, March 29, 2025, I had the opportunity to personally visit the said area and talk to the citizens in detail and know their problems in detail. I am trying to highlight those issues to you. These families have been living in that area for the last 5/6 generations. All of them have valid documents. They have come to this situation due to the construction of barbed wire fence on the India-Bangladesh border. Most of them are working class people, earning daily wages and running their families in some way. There is no civic service in this settlement except electricity”, said jiten.
He said that apart from the houses of the said 85 families, these families and some other families in this area have crop land, 1 mosque and 1 graveyard on that land. However, due to the Border Guards imposing specific hours (6.00 am to 5.30 pm) and various rules for crossing the border gate, they are facing many problems.
“If the government had arranged for land settlement at a nearby place, built houses etc. and made arrangements for rehabilitation, these 85 families would have been ready to leave that place. Elsewhere, a barbed wire fence has been constructed 150 yards from the international border inside Indian territory. For unknown reasons, a fence has been built in this place for more than 500 yards. If the barbed wire can be rebuilt above 150 yards, more than half of the families will not need to be relocated. This will not only keep half of the families intact – the mosque and the graveyard will also be outside the barbed wire. The families demand that they should be allowed to live in that area until the above (mentioned in proposals 1 and 2) are taken care of. Electricity service should not be cut off and harassment by the Border Guards should be stopped. Since the graveyard is for the convenience of everyone in this vast area, a new gate should be built near that area”, said Jiten.
He also appealed to the Chief Minister to intervene quickly and consider the proposals sincerely, realizing the importance of the above very human and sensitive issues.
