Border Dispute between Odisha and West Bengal...

Border Dispute between Odisha and West Bengal with Special Reference to Udaypur and Sankhamedi Villages

Author Name : Dr. Dhirendra Kumar Jena

ABSTRACT

Boundary or border either domestically or internationally plays vital role to reveal state’s identity. Most of the time boundary or borderland becomes bone of contention among the provinces or the nation-states.In this work, the border discontentment between West Bengal and Odisha with special reference to Udayapur and Sankhamedi villages out of 14 disputed villages is focused on.The work is produced by the data from both primary and secondary sources. And to make it more scientific, both quantitative and qualitative methods are applied. From the study, it is found that frequent border disputes among the people from both sites are occurred on the borderland of Udayapur due to its rich natural tourism resources, people’s blind love towards their own state(province) and language. Further, the reason of sudden conflict among the people of both sides is business interest. Again, the dispute in Sankhamedi village is primarily due to neglect of Odisha government and over focus of West Bengal government which resulted in one-sided demarcation previously which has been opposed by Odisha. This lingers the controversy there. Finally, this work has suggested some remedial measures like immediate joint demarcation, establishment of special police force at borderland, inculcation of the sense of humanity and brotherhood into the mind of both sides of the people for solution of border dispute between these two states in the villages of Udaypur and Sankhamedi.

Keywords: Border, Dispute, Government, Udaypur, Sankhamedi, Odisha, West Bengal.