Land Boundary agreement to be officially executed on July 31

By Madhuparna Das

KOLKATA: The enclaves would officially become the part of the respective countries –India and Bangladesh – on July 31. Issuing a notification the district magistrate of Coochbehar district of North Bengal stated that the Land Boundary agreement would officially be executed on July 31. With the implementation of the LBA, all the Bangladeshi enclaves would be the part of Indian mainland from July 31 onwards while all the Indian Enclaves would be the part of Bangladesh.

Coochbehar district has 51 Bangladeshi enclaves where around 15000 people live. Today the district magistrate of Coochbehar, P Ulganathan and the senior administrative officials of Bangladesh held a five- hour- long meeting at Changrabandha BoP and discussed the procedures for the implementation of the LBA. In the first week of August, the teams of administrative officials from both sides would visit the enclaves and speak to the people over their desired citizenship.

Diptiman Sengupta, secretary of the Indo-Bangla enclave exchange coordination committee said," We would start celebrating our independence from July 31 midnight. We did not celebrate even after Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed the agreement in Dhaka ."

In 2011, a process was initiated by both the Indian and Bangladeshi to count heads in Indian and Bangladeshi enclaves. In 162 enclaves in both the countries, the census like survey revealed that there are 15,000 people living in 51 Bangladeshi enclaves (7,000 acres) in Indian territory and 37000 people living in 111 Indian enclaves (about 17,000 acres) in Bangladesh territory.