By Ram Kumar Jha and Saurabh Kumar
The passing in Indian parliament of an agreement to settle land boundary disputes is a significant step forward.
May 7, 2015 was a historic day in India-Bangladesh relations. That was the day when Indian parliament passed a Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) Bill. The amendment ensures a settlement of the long-running land boundary dispute with Bangladesh. It will contribute to stability and better economic activities at the border points. The bill has now to be ratified and signed, which may happen in June when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is due to visit Bangladesh.
The arbitrary division of the border in 1947 resulted in dispute over the control of numerous enclaves. These India-Bangladesh enclaves were known as the chitmahals. There were 102 Indian enclaves inside Bangladesh and 71 Bangladeshi enclaves inside India. Inside those enclaves are also 28 counter-enclaves and one counter-counter-enclave. Thousands of people live in these enclaves, where they are subject to harassment from the security forces of both countries and are unable to access basic amenities and entitlements of citizenship or proper facilities such as electricity, schools, and health services. Even law-and-order agencies lack proper access to these areas. The LBA would allow residents to stay or migrate and become citizens. A joint Indo-Bangladesh delegation that visited these enclaves in May 2007 found that people residing in Indian enclaves in Bangladesh and Bangladeshi enclaves in India did not want to leave their land and would rather remain in the country where they had lived all their lives.
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