BALASORE : The talks between the representatives of district administrations of Balasore and East Midnapore of West Bengal held recently to resolve the border dispute involving Udaypur village failed to yield desired result.
While the officials agreed to go for a joint verification of the disputed land, it was decided to maintain the status quo till the joint inquiry is completed and a concrete decision taken. The date for the joint verification was not decided.
The failure of talks has disappointed the residents of border villages who were expecting a permanent solution to the dispute. The meeting was attended by Collector Aravind Agrawal, DIG Asit Panigrahi, In-charge SP Gyanendra Parija, Sub-Collector Indramani Nayak, local Tehsildar, BDO and police officials of Balasore district, besides Collector Antara Acharya, SP Sukesh Jain, Ramnagar BDO Tamojit Chakraborty, Kontai SDPO Indrajit Basu and Digha police of East Midnapore.
The meeting was convened after the officials of Ramnagar block in Bengal forcibly stalled the construction of a marine police station at Udaypur village on July 2. The police station is coming up in an area of one acre which belongs to Bhograi tehsil of Balasore district.
Though the officials of both the districts seemed to be convinced that the disputed land belongs to Odisha as per the settlement map of 1988, the administrative officials of East Midnapore claimed that as per the forest land records, this patch of land comes under their jurisdiction.
Even as it is impossible to have different maps for one particular patch, Balasore district officials agreed to have a joint verification facilitating a fresh demarcation of the land.
Balasore Collector said the joint inquiry will be conducted shortly and the report submitted to the State Government to take the final decision on the matter.
The locals, who were also expecting that the border dispute in other villages under Bhograi and Jaleswar blocks will also be taken up for discussion, were disappointed as the matter was not discussed.
Earlier, Balasore Collector visited most of the villages having border dispute to take a stock of the situation ahead of the joint talks.