Enclaves along the India-Bangladesh borders are now ready to exchange their sides after 41 years of agreement. Within the Bangladesh there are 102 Indian enclaves whereas India has 21 counter enclaves.
The agreement for swap was signed on May 16th 1974 between Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. That agreement was not ratified by the Indian government at that time, but our Prime Minister Narendra Modi ratified the agreement when visited the capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka on June 6th 2015.
The exchange of enclaves will be starting in the midnight on July 31st 2015. Out of 37,000 Indians only 900 dwellers living in Indian enclaves inside Bangladesh are ready to swap to India. The rest of Indians are not willing to come back, because they have their own lands, property in Bangladesh for the last 68 years.
P Ulaganathan, the district magistrate of Cooch Behar, West Bengal told that “these are the people with no addresses. So getting them one, assigning a pin code is my first job.”
The Bangladesh government is ready to handover 162 enclaves to India, where only 55 enclaves will be swapping to Bangladesh. 14000 Bangladeshis are provided with Indian citizenship and the government has raised around Rs 3,048 crore-package for the development of these citizens.
The becoming Indians are hoisting Indian flags and showing off their love towards India out of extreme happiness. The whole swapping process including physical exchange of enclave and land parcels in adverse possession along with boundary demarcation is expected to be completed between 31st July 2015 to 30th June 2016.
