New Delhi – Officials on Friday said preparations were in top gear for the exchange of enclaves between India and Bangladesh.
Chiranjib Ghosh, an official at the Cooch Behar District Collectorate in India told newsmen that the visit would aim to strengthen bilateral relations between the two nations.
People living in these tiny pockets of land in each other’s territory did not have citizenship or identity papers and have had to go for decades without access to government schemes, schools and even electricity.
India and Bangladesh signed an agreement this year under which they would swap 162 enclaves so that those in India would become part of Indian territory and those in Bangladesh would belong to Bangladesh.
It said that the occasion would be celebrated with flag hoisting ceremonies organised by the local administration, the lighting of lamps and blowing conch shells.
A 75 year-old Mansur Mian of Potarkuti, a Bangladeshi enclave that would become part of India said that it took them 68 years to finally come to the point.
“It took 68 years to reach this point, words cannot describe how we feel,’’ Mian said.
Mian said he was forced to leave the primary school where he was a student after the partition of India in 1947 when Bangladesh became a part of Pakistan.
“The school authorities said I was now a foreigner and could not continue to be there anymore,’’ he said.
Report says there are 111 Indian enclaves in Bangladesh and 51 Bangladeshi enclaves in India.
All 14,854 people in Bangladeshi enclaves on Indian soil have sought Indian citizenship, while 979 of the 39,176 people staying in Indian enclaves in Bangladesh have opted for Indian citizenship. (dpa/NAN)
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