Indo-Bangla joint border conference begins

AGARTALA: The two-day India-Bangladesh Joint Border Conference of the Collectors of six districts in Tripura and their Bangladeshi counterparts and border guards of those districts began here today.

"The conference is aimed at improving relation at the grassroots level and issues like smuggling, trans-border crime, narcotics will be discussed," District Magistrate of West Tripura district Abhishek Singh said.

District Magistrates of West Tripura, Unokoti, North Tripura, Khowai, Dhalai and Sepahijala, while Deputy Commissioners of Bangladesh's Brahmanbaria, Moulavi Bazar, Rangamati and Habiganj are taking part in the conference.

"Issues like drug trafficking, smuggling and patrolling has been discussed in the meeting and we have decided to resolve these problems at our level," Moulavi Bazar DC Md Kamrul Hassan, leader of the Bangladeshi delegation, said.

" BSF and BGB flag meetings take place frequently but this type of meeting helps us to build confidence in grassroots levels," Hassan told reporters after the first day's meeting.

Earlier, District Magistrates of Sipahijala, Gomti, South Tripura and Dhalai had met deputy commissioners of Comilla, Feni, Rangamati, Khagrachari and Chittagong here on January 9 and 10.

Tripura shares 856 km-long border with Bangladesh.