Agartala, Nov. 26: BSF special director-general Rina Mitra visited Muhurichar in Belonia, the headquarters of South Tripura district, here yesterday to survey a plot of land being claimed by Bangladesh.

Mitra, who was accompanied by junior colleagues and Tripura's civil officials, took stock of the situation on the plot of land up to Belonia town. Subdivisional magistrate of Belonia Smitha Mol briefed her about the situation and the problems in handing over the land to Bangladesh.

On November 12, a group of officials from the Union ministry of external affairs and foreign ministry of Bangladesh had held a meeting at Belonia to find a solution but to no avail. Another round of bilateral talks had been held on November 18 in Dhaka where the joint secretary in the Indian external affairs ministry, Sripriya Ranganathan, led the delegation but it also failed to reach a consensus.

Mitra will submit a report about the location of Muhurichar to the Union home ministry, which will brief the ministry of external affairs for further talks with Bangladesh.

Additional district magistrate of South Tripura T.K. Mazumder said the whole tract of 21 acres, being claimed by Bangladesh as part of the exchange of enclaves, did not legitimately belong to it.

"The problem was created by a Survey of India team that arrived in Belonia in 2014 and unilaterally surveyed the disputed land without any consultation with the district administration. On the basis of their report, Bangladesh found an opportunity to claim the entire plot of land as their property. The then district administration had objected to the survey but nobody from the central government listened or responded to it," said Mazumder.

In 1964, a small sar had emerged in the Muhuri river that flows from South Tripura to Noakhali district of Bangladesh but it soon expanded to 7 acres and now to 21 acres, including tracts of land on the bank of the river.

"Between 1966 and 1999, there had been a lot of gunfire exchanges between the BSF, the Pakistani Rangers and then BDR of Bangladesh but no solution could be found either to the Muhurichar issue or to other enclaves. The Bangladeshi side resisted the Indian farmers by force from cultivating the land that legitimately belonged to them," said Mazumder.

He said he had got a hint from central government officials, who recently visited Belonia to inspect Muhurichar, that the Centre was aware of the problem and was keen to resolve it amicably at the bilateral level, and, if necessary, in other spheres also.