Land swap highlights migration issue
REHABILITATION Centre has announced a compensation package of over ` 3,000 cr for West Bengal
SILIGURI: The passing of the historic Constitution Amendment Bill by both Houses of Parliament to operationalise the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) signed in 1974 that provides for exchange of territories between India and Bangladesh has raised the question of migration.
If ratified by India, the agreement — already ratified by Bangladesh —will result in the swapping of 166 enclaves between the two countries. The parliamentary standing commit- tee on foreign affairs headed by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has already recommended that enclave dwellers should be given the option of choosing the country they would like to live in.
The LBA is likely to address two other issues — un-demarcated border and adversely possessed land between the two countries.
The swapping is also likely to lead to the migration of Indian enclave dwellers to West Bengal for which the Centre has already announced a rehabilitation package of ` 3,008.89 crore for the state.
Enclaves are small and scat- tered tracts of land belonging to one country but surrounded by another country. India has 111 enclaves with a population of 37,369 while Bangladesh has 51 enclaves that house 14,215 people.
The swapping will result in West Bengal losing 10,048 acres of land. As no one from the Bangladeshi enclaves is likely to migrate to Bangladesh, the state will have to bear the additional burden of rehabilitating those coming from Indian enclaves.
Since Independence, no protection has been provided to enclave dwellers in the two countries. The Border Security Force and police have no access to the Bangladeshi enclaves. Similarly, Bangladesh Police and Border Guard Bangladesh have no access to Indian enclaves.
“The historic development of the passing of the Land Boundary Agreement will finally do justice to the enclave dwellers who have no rights so far,” said Diptiman Sengupta, chief coordinator of Bharat Bangladesh Enclave Exchange Co-ordination Committee.
However, unlike the state and Centre’s estimates, the committee said only 149 families of 743 people living in Indian enclaves have expressed their willingness to migrate to West Bengal while no one from Bangladesh enclaves wishes to go back, said Sengupta.
External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said, “Though an audit showed only 3,500 people had shown interest in migrating to India, the government is making provisions for 35,000. Thus, the Centre has announced a compensation package of ` 3008.89 crore for West Bengal.”
According to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, 60,00070,000 people will come from Bangladesh to West Bengal after the enclaves are exchanged.