The meeting in Balurghat. Picture by Ramen Mondal

Balurghat, July 9: Tall stalks of jute cultivated densely in areas close to the border are a security threat, according to the Border Security Force (BSF).

The crop, which is grown in abundance along the border in South Dinajpur district, has become a bone of contention between the border guards and the farmers. And the latter’s cause has been taken up by the Balurghat MP, Ranen Barman.

“How can the BSF dictate to the farmers what to grow and what not to? This cannot be brooked. The livelihood of farmers cultivating jute on thousands of acres of land along the border will be at stake,” said Barman, after emerging from a meeting with senior BSF officials and the district magistrate, Swapan Kumar Chatterjee this afternoon.

“I had been getting flooded with complaints from the farmers about BSF atrocities and I had asked the district magistrate to immediately convene a meeting,” the Lok Sabha member said.

The paramilitary force was represented at the meeting by the commandants of its three companies posted in South Dinajpur. Also present was the new sabhadhipati of the zilla parishad, Magdalena Murmu.

At the very onset, Barman raised the problems the farmers were facing as well as the harassment by the border guards when the farmers went to till their land on the other side of the fencing.

However, BSF sources said the plantations with jute stalks growing well over five feet were an ideal place for smugglers and criminals to take shelter in.

“We have been told by our superiors not to allow such cultivation to take place, especially in areas where there is no fencing,” an officer said.

Senior BSF officers said 252km of India’s border with Bangladesh passed through South Dinajpur. Out of this, only 38km remained to be fenced. They told the district magistrate that at many places, the work of erecting the fence was held up because of opposition from villagers who were refusing to move away from the alignment.

They told the district administration that the tall jute plants were hampering the use of thermal image sensors which had been recently procured to detect the movement of people and cattle in pitch dark conditions.

However, the BSF commandants said there should be better coordination with villagers during the opening and closing of the fencing gates.

The district magistrate said problems did crop up along the border throughout the year. “While some are solved, others continue to persist, we will sit with the block authorities to thrash out the issues.”

Chatterjee said there would be joint inspections in the areas where fence was not being allowed to come up by the villagers.