Bogra Sangbad Desk : Enclave dwellers have to sell land before migrating to India. Enclave people who opted for relocating to India will have to sell their properties in Bangladesh territory on their own beforehand.
The decision came at a meeting of the Bangladesh-India joint boundary working committee to implement the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA).
The two-day meeting opened yesterday at a city hotel to discuss various issues regarding exchange of enclaves between the two countries.
A total of 979 dwellers in Indian enclaves inside Bangladesh territory have expressed willingness to move to India. But the question arose how their property-related problems would be resolved, officials said.
“We discussed how the 979 people would travel to India and what would happen to their properties in Bangladesh,” said Shafiqur Rahman, joint secretary of the home ministry.
The meeting decided that Bangladesh will issue travel documents to the 979 while India will grant them multiple-entry visas.
A joint secretary of the Indian external affairs ministry and Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem, additional secretary of the Bangladesh home ministry, led their respective sides at the meeting.
According to the census of 2011, there were 37,364 people in 111 Indian enclaves, covering 17,158 acres in Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari and Panchagarh districts of Bangladesh.
However, the joint survey conducted earlier this month found that 41,449 people are there.
Talking to BBC Bangla Service, Deputy Commissioner Habibur Rahman of Lalmonirhat said the issue of some 35 people who claimed to have been excluded from a census, also came under discussion during the meeting.
At least 14,215 people are living in 51 Bangladeshi enclaves covering 7,110 acres of Indian land. But none of them were willing to move to Bangladesh.
As per schedule, the two governments will exchange the enclaves from July 31 midnight to November 30.
Residents of 162 enclaves have been living there as “stateless citizens” since 1947. They have been denied basic human rights and remained outside the ambit of all state-funded development and welfare programmes.
Source : The Daily Star
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