After 62 years of uncertainty, 2,196 Bangladeshi refugee families in Pilibhit district, Uttar Pradesh, are set to receive legal ownership of the land they’ve lived on since fleeing East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in the 1960s. The Uttar Pradesh government, under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, has issued directives to finalize the process, with only formalities remaining.

District Magistrate Gyanendra Singh announced on Wednesday that the administration is ready to act as soon as final guidelines arrive. The families, spread across 25 villages including Tatarganj, Bamanpur, and Nehru Nagar in Kalinagar and Puranpur tehsils, were allotted land for housing and farming in 1960 but lacked legal titles, barring them from government welfare schemes.

Verification reports for 1,466 families have already been submitted to the state government, paving the way for ownership documents. Local leaders, including BJP district president Sanjeev Pratap Singh and minister Baldev Singh Aulakh, hailed the decision as a historic step, recognizing the refugees’ decades-long struggle.

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The move, finalized in a recent meeting chaired by the chief minister, fulfills a long-standing demand, bringing relief and security to thousands of displaced families.

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