Shillong: With the stalemate over joint verification of the disputed Meghalaya-Bangladesh border continuing, a joint survey team has referred the issue to the respective foreign ministries.
The survey virtually remained suspended since December 16 after local people and border guarding forces created hindrances in carrying out the survey work.
Some Bangladeshis, armed with sharp weapons and backed by BDR men illegally entered India and confronted the survey officials several times since the process began on December 7, government sources said.
Meghalaya survey officials, however, said the process was on, but the progress "very slow".
The sources said the issue had been referred to the Ministry of External Affairs. "There is disagreement on a lot of stretches. The ground has to be cleared first. The MEA has to intervene."
With the festive season commencing in Meghalaya, the survey officials of Meghalaya have also returned from the survey sites and the exercise is unlikely to resume before January 3.
Sources said the BDR men are obstructing the survey at those stretches which are adversely held by India like Muktapur, Lyngkhat and Pyrdiwah, claiming that the land belonged to Bangladesh and was not disputed.
The joint survey of the disputed Bangladesh-Meghalaya border, which is expected to pave the way for settlement of the boundary dispute, started on December 7.
The exercise, which was mooted by the Joint Boundary Working Group during its meeting in New Delhi in November 2009, is being conducted by survey and land records officials of Bangladesh and Meghalaya.
In that meeting, it was decided that BDR and BSF would provide "outside security" to the officials conducting the survey.
The verification will be conducted in 12 disputed patches bordering Meghalaya, stretches of which are under "adverse possession" of either countries.
According to official records, currently, there are 551.8 acres of Bangladeshi land under "adverse possession" of India (Assam and Meghalaya) while 226.81 acres of Indian land is under adverse possession of Bangladesh.
The areas under adverse possession, 12 of them in Meghalaya sector, were created when the two countries demarcated the international boundary in the mid-1960s.