The government is all set to begin a month-long land survey tomorrow to freshly demarcate the areas of the former exclaves in Lalmonirhat, Kurigram, Panchagarh and Nilphamari districts.
At the end of this land survey process, the former exclaves will get new maps after 96 years the land owners will get permanent ownership.
However, exclave dwellers have a fear that local political influentials might use their muscles to snatch their land.
Instructions regarding this has already been sent to these districts’ administration, who, in turn, have formed an eight-member committee, comprising the executive officers of those upazilas within which the former exclaves fall.
At the field level, the land survey would be conducted by separate seven-member working groups for each upazilas. These groups will be led by the upazila revenue officers.
In addition, high-powered nine-member committees, led by deputy commissioners, will look after the overall land survey activities in each of these districts.
This land survey effort is part of the multiple-steps implementation of the exclave-exchange deal between India and Bangladesh. As part of the process, residents of the former exclaves, who chose to go to India, will start leaving on November 1.
The groups and committees mentioned above will primarily have three tasks.
First, they will do a field level survey and make fresh hand-drawn maps of the former exclaves. Second, they will put in information of ownership in Record of Rights forms. Third, they will take signature of the land owners in the respective Record of Rights forms.
There are two former exclaves in the Lalmonirhat sadar upazila, two in Hatibandha upazila and 55 in the Patgram upazila.
Azizul Islam, acting general secretary of the Lalmonirhat unit of the Former India-Bangladesh Exclaves Exchange Coordination Committee, said: “The dwellers of the former exclaves have only one thing say to the government officials – please make sure that nobody is allowed to play games with their land. Please also make sure that nobody can forcefully take away the land that belongs us.”
Diptiman Sengupta, a leader of the coordination committee, said: “It is essential that the skilled officials of the land office form the Records of Rights forms. In addition, the local arbitration councils can also be consulted for surveying the disputed land.”
Habibur Rahman, deputy commissioner of Lalmonirhat district, said: “A bunch of old documents were exchanged during the DC-DM conference. These documents will be consulted for running the land survey. We have formed three committees to look after the entire process. If anyone raises any objections, we will solve them quickly.”