Crossing the border to have a bath

NAZURPURA (Tripura), APRIL 6. Ms. Jaheda Khatun crosses the Zero Line along the border everyday to go to Bhabermura village of Comilla district of Bangladesh for a bath.

She is not alone. The 800 villagers of Nazurpura in west Tripura district, slip into Bangladesh either for fetching drinking water or to take a bath.

``Yes, I cross the border and walk down about one km to fetch water from a pond in Bhabermura because there is no water in our village. You cannot expect us to die of thirst or remain dirty!'' Ms. Jaheda told PTI.

``But crossing the border is not always easy, because if the Border Security Force (BSF) or the Bangladesh Rifles personnel spot us, they turn us back. I could not bathe yesterday as I was stopped by some BSF personnel,'' Mr. Abdul Manan, a farmer, said.

The monsoons failed to bring any relief to the villagers. ``Even during the rainy season we are no better off as there is no pond here,'' complains Mr. Abdul.

A teacher of Nazrulpalli Junior Basic School, Mr. Kanti Sarkar, said the only tubewell in the village had been out of order for the last six months.

Earlier, even children crossed the border to go to school. ``Even last year students used to go to Bangladesh to study in a junior basic school as there was no school in the village,'' the villagers said. The Nazrulpalli school was set up only recently.

Mr. Abdul Latif, a former head of the village, said the villagers had been facing these problems since the partition in 1947. ``We have seen many governments since Independence, but no government solved our problem. My party, the Congress, ruled the state for more than 30 years and the Left Front for about 20 years, but neither of them addressed our problems,'' he regretted.

Ms. Neherunnesa Bibi, a CPI(M) member of the village panchayat, said after repeated requests to the authorities two tubewells were sunk in the village, but they did not work.

The secretary of the CPI(M) local committee, Mr. Tapan Paul, said the authorities made no arrangement to irrigate the fields. When contacted, the Rural Development Minister, Mr. Subodh Das, said he had ordered the district magistrate to inquire into the matter and submit a report to him immediately.

``We must repair the tubewells and if they cannot be repaired, we must supply drinking water with the help of tankers to the village and also dig some kutcha wells,'' Mr. Das said.

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