Bangla land swap deal bill gets nod from Cabinet
The Union Cabinet on Tuesday cleared the constitutional amendment bill to operationalise the Land Boundary Agreement with Bangladesh.
This covers areas of Assam, West Bengal, Tripura and Meghalaya to be swapped with Bangladesh in exchange for other territories held by that country.
The bill is likely to come up Wednesday in the Rajya Sabha, where an earlier bill is pending since 2013. This comes as the government took several parties into confidence, sources said. The bill must be ratified by at least 50 per cent of state legislatures before it can come into effect.
The Cabinet decision was a day after the BJP- RSS leadership discussed the bill with Assam leaders and decided to include territories pertaining to the state.
The Union Cabinet on Tuesday cleared the constitutional amendment bill to operationalise the Land Boundary Agreement with Bangladesh.
The bill cleared by the Union Cabinet includes territories in Assam, along with those in West Bengal, Tripura and Meghalaya to be exchanged with Bangladesh in a deal of swapping of land held by each countries.
The bill is likely to come up in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. The move comes with the government, sources said, having taken into confidence various parties in the Rajya Sabha, where an earlier bill in this regard is pending since December 2013.
The government had earlier proposed to bring the bill in Lok Sabha.
The move to include Assam territories in the bill indicates government’s resolve to get the legislation cleared after bringing all parties on board, sources said. The bill would require ratification of at least 50 per cent of the state legislatures before it comes into effect. Incidentally, the Cabinet decision came a day after the top leadership of BJP and RSS discussed the bill with its Assam leaders and decided to include the territories pertaining to the state. The meeting was attended by home minister Rajnath Singh, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and parliamentary affairs minister M. Venkaiah Naidu, along with RSS joint general secretary Krishna Gopal. Sources said the top BJP RSS leadership discussed the Assam Assembly elections slated for next year and the party’s strategy for it as also the political ramifications of delinking Assam from the land boundary bill.
It may be recalled that the BJP leaders from the state had earlier demanded that Assam should be delinked from the bill as exchange of territories to Bangladesh had become an “emotive issue” in the state. However, the Congress had demanded that Assam should not be delinked from the bill and its territories be included in it. The party had opposed tooth and nail the exclusion of Assam from its ambit.
● The Union Cabinet on Tuesday cleared the constitutional amendment bill to operationalise the Land Boundary Agreement with Bangladesh