After living in camps for nearly 16 months, 201 families of erstwhile enclave dwellers who chose to come to India after the historic enclave swap in 2015 are demanding that they be given small pieces of land to construct houses rather than apartments.
Apart from approaching local district officials, the people who received citizenship rights after decades of living in a “stateless condition” have approached the Prime Minister. “I have written to the Prime Minister on March 23, urging him that these families be given small pieces of land. We are raising the demand because essentially we are people from a rural background, and rearing cattle and poultry is an essential part of our existence,” said Osman Goni, who resides in the Dinhata camp where 58 families live.
Work to start soon
The district administration, however, has plans to rehabilitate the families in apartments.
A Cooch Behar district official said tenders had been published for constructing two-storey buildings in the three police station areas where the camps were located.
“We have the requisite land and construction work will start soon,” the official said.
People from the Haldibari camp in the district, which houses 96 such families, met the sub-divisional officer (SDO) of Mekhliganj on Monday to request that they be given small pieces of land instead of apartments.
“We have come to know from certain reports that ₹22 crore will be spent on the rehabilitation of the 201 families. This would come to about ₹10 lakh per family and with the same money, we can be given a few cottahs of land with a small rural house on it,” Joy Prakash Roy of the Haldibari camp said.
Forty-seven families in the Mekhliganj camp raise similar demands, and met district officials, giving them a memorandum on the issue.
Cooch Behar MP Partha Pratim Ray said that he had raised the issue with West Bengal Chief Secretary Basudeb Banerjee on Tuesday.
“I also feel that these families should be given small patches of land. I raised the matter with Chief Secretary during the day,” Mr. Ray told The Hindu .
The Trinamool Congress MP said that if those residing in these camps were willing to relocate to the interior parts of the district, where land was available, they could be provided small patches of land.
As per the Land Boundary Agreement between the two countries and the subsequently established protocol, 51 Bangladeshi enclaves in India and 151 Indian ones in Bangladesh were transferred on July 31, 2015.
While no enclave dweller from the Bangladeshi enclaves in India left for Bangladesh, 920 people of 201 families from the erstwhile Indian enclaves in Bangladesh came to India in November 2015.
