Assistant Indian high commissioner in Bangladesh, Sandwip Mitra, on Monday said the Indian government is continuing its effort to implement the Land Boundary Agreement.
‘The Indian government is always ready for the welfare of human kind,’ he said while visiting enclaves in Panchagarh.
Sandwip Mitra said according to the agreement the enclave dwellers would continue staying there as before.
The inhabitants of 51 enclaves inside India will turn into Indian citizens and people living in 111 enclaves inside Bangladesh will become Bangladesh nationals, he said.
‘There is no room for tricks and politics here,’ Sandwip Mitra added.
Indian Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament, on May 7 unanimously passed a bill seeking amendment to the constitution to implement the historic Land Boundary Agreement to facilitate the exchange of 162 enclaves, transfer of adversely possessed areas and demarcation of 6.5km of unmarked border lands between the two neighbours.
Under the agreement, India will hand over 111 enclaves measuring 17,160 acres of land with a population of 37,369 to Bangladesh and take over 51 enclaves covering of 7,110 acres with a population of nearly 14,090, according to the first-ever joint headcount conducted in July 2011.
A total of 51 Bangladesh enclaves – 18 in Kurigram and 33 in Lalmonirhat – are located in Cooch Behar district of Paschimbangla and of the 111 Indian enclaves, 12 are situated in Kurigram, 59 in Lalmonirhat, four in Nilphamari and 36 in Panchagarh of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh and India will formally exchange documents of the enclave-land on either side of the border and take rehabilitation programmes for the people after the ratification process is completed, said officials concerned.
Source: New Age
