Thousands of enclaves dwellers on Tuesday welcomed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s announcement that she is in favour of settlement of the six-decade-old issue of enclaves located on the either side of border.
“Her comments have given us hope that the issue will be sorted out at the earliest. We expect that the Land Boundary Agreement which was tabled in the Parliament last year will be passed in the winter session of the Parliament,” Mansur Ali, (68) a resident of Poatarkuti enclave in the State’s Cooch Behar district told The Hindu on Tuesday.
Diptiman Sengupta, assistant secretary of Bharat Bangladesh Enclave Exchange Co-ordination Committee, which has been raising the issue of enclave dwellers over past few decades, also welcomed Ms. Banerjee support to the settlement.
“The West Bengal Chief Minister’s support to the issue is a recognition to the struggle of the people fighting for citizenship rights,” Mr Sengupta said. Told The Hindu.
Speaking to journalists in New Delhi, Ms. Banerjee had said on Monday that she is in favour of exchange of enclaves in Cooch Behar. “I want that the people of chitmahal (enclaves) get their rights. They are deprived,” she said, adding that Centre has to take the State Govt. in confidence before taking any decision of border enclaves. She put the onus of rehabilitation of the people in the process on the Centre.
Ms. Banerjee’s comments are a departure from her stand in November 2013 when the Land Boundary Agreement, a Constitutional Amendment Bill was tabled in the Parliament and her party opposed the Bill.
Panel to table report on the Bill
According to sources, the Parliament Standing Committee on External Affairs headed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor will submit a report on the Bill in the upcoming Winter Session of the Parliament. The Bill is likely is to be taken up in the winter session itself.
“It is humanitarian crisis where thousands of people are living in State-less situation and the issue needs to be sorted out at the earliest. However the volte-face of the Trinamool Congress chairperson has surprised many people,” Mohd. Salim, MP of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said.
Though Bharatiya Janata Party MP Chandan Mitra said that it is one step forward, but Ms. Banerjee “changing mind at her convenience” does not mean that the Bill is passed.
Mr. Mitra said that the State leadership of BJP in Assam and Bengal had expressed concerns about exchange of enclaves as India would lose territory in the swap.
While there are 51 Bangladeshi enclaves with about 14,000 residents are located deep inside Indian territory in West Bengal’s Cooch Behar district, 111 Indian enclaves with a population of 38,000 are located in four districts of Bangladesh. There is a similar situation in Assam in case of a few enclaves.
