Manas R Bannerjee
MALDA, July 18: Malda irrigation officials resumed anti-erosion work on the bank of the Punardhaba river at Lakshminarayanpur village today following a ceasefire between the BSF and the BDR, a senior BSF official said. The BSF official informed that the anti-erosion work on the Lakshminarayanpur bank of the river Punarbhaba was suspended after the BSF and BDR exchanged fire over the issue of cattle smuggling yesterday. "The entire region was on high alert yesterday following the the BRD-BSF shoot-out, but everything is under control now," said a BSF official. The fire exchange between the BSF and BDR took place around 1.35 p.m. yesterday at Lakshminarayanpur that is under the Bat-tali BOP of 172 Battalion BSF in the Bamongola police station area, about 50 km east of Malda town. It is important to protect the barbed-wire fencing from severe erosion in the Indo-Bangla border area, which is under the jurisdiction of the Bat-tali BOP. Safe distance between the barbed-wire fence and the borderline is two-three metres, said an irrigation official. Senior irrigation officials, including members of Central Water Commission, visited the Indo-Bangla border area here recently and decided to take up temporary anti-erosion measures on the bank of Punarbhaba for this year. As per guidelines of the Joint River Commission comprising teams from both the countries, it was also decided to take up permanent anti-erosion measures to rescue the border fence from India's side. The BSF and BDR had exchanged fire last year on the issue of area operation in Adampur and Muchia border outposts, when Indian officials took up temporary anti-erosion work to repair their side of the border fence. The BSF retaliated when the BDR opened fire at them in order to stop the ongoing anti-erosion work, which was as far as 150 yards from the zero line. The entire matter is still under consideration. Top authorities of both Bangladesh and India are trying to find out a permanent solution to the problem.
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