The Union Home Ministry has approved citizenship to 14,864 people who chose to stay in India following exchange of adversely-held enclaves with Bangladesh under the landmark land boundary agreement.
The decision to grant the citizenship was taken recently, a senior Home Minister official said.
India and Bangladesh exchanged 162 adversely-held enclaves at the stroke midnight of July 31-Aug 1 this year, just over a month after the signing of an enabling document between the two countries during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Dhaka in June this year to implement the historic land boundary agreement passed by Parliament. According to an estimate, around 37,000 people were living in Indian enclaves in Bangladesh while 14,000 people were staying in Bangladeshi enclaves in India.
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A survey was jointly carried out by the two countries to ascertain the citizenship choice of the residents of the enclaves from July 6-16 this year.