"Faced with opposition from Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and the Congress party in Parliament as well as unhappiness from the Hasina government in Dhaka, the government on Tuesday reversed its decision on excluding Assam from the purview of its Bill on exchanging land with Bangladesh."
One can only hope that this long overdue bill, held up because of earlier intransigence of the BJP and TMC (and also AGP) will now be through and bring relief to a large number of hapless (and virtually stateless) people living in isolated enclaves on both sides of the international border. Along with the yet unresolved issue of water sharing of the Teesta River, this the other major friction point with the easterly neighbour.] I/II. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/indiabangladesh-land-deal-centre-includes-assam-in-its-bill/article7173440.ece Updated: May 5, 2015 19:25 IST Govt. includes Assam in LBA with Bangladesh SUHASINI HAIDAR ANITA JOSHUA Move follows opposition from Assam CM, and Bangladesh government ***Faced with opposition from Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and the Congress party in Parliament as well as unhappiness from the Hasina government in Dhaka, the government on Tuesday reversed its decision on excluding Assam from the purview of its Bill on exchanging land with Bangladesh.*** [Emphasis added.] The Bill, a constitutional amendment (119th Constitutional Amendment act of 2013) which will allow the operationalisation of the 1974 India-Bangladesh Land Boundary agreement, was cleared by the Cabinet on Tuesday, including enclaves and "adverse possessions" from West Bengal, Meghalaya, Tripura and Assam, the Director of the Press Information Bureau Frank Noronha told The Hindu. An earlier plan by the government to exclude Assam from the land swap arrangement because of fierce resistance from the BJP's Assam unit ahead of state elections this year, has now been shelved. Once it is cleared in parliament, the bill would pave the way for the historic agreement being ratified by India at a formal signing ceremony expected to take place when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Dhaka in June. After the Cabinet clearance , the business advisory committee (BAC) met to clear tabling the bill on Wednesday in the Rajya Sabha. Sources said that at the meeting, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj informed BAC members of the government's decision to include Assam as is in the original agreement. An earlier meeting of the BAC on Thursday had put off scheduling the bill, because many opposition parties demanded the inclusion of Assam. CPI MP D. Raja welcomed the government's decision to bring consensus on the bill by reversing it's stand. "At a time the government is being attacked on several domestic policies, it would have been very unfortunate if it failed to carry political parties on foreign policy issues as well," he told The Hindu. In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week , Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had urged him to put aside political considerations and include Assam in the agreement for a permanent solution to the outstanding issue between both issues, adding the "Construction of border fencing will also prevent illegal infiltration of foreigners and subversive elements, smuggling, etc. by sealing the porous border." The Hindu had also reported on the Bangladeshi government's unease over the NDA's proposed move to exclude Assam. In an interview to The Hindu in Dhaka, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam had indicated that Bangladesh had not been taken into confidence on any changes, and had not received formal intimation from India. According the agreement, India is to receive 2,777.038 acres of land and to transfer 2267.682 acres to Bangladesh, much of which has already been effected on the ground already. 1974 May 16: India-Bangladesh Agreement inked, not ratified India has 111 enclaves within Bangaldesh (70 square km) Bangladesh has 51 enclaves in India (28 square km) Most enclaves are in Assam, West Bengal, Meghalaya and Tripura. 2011 September 6: Bangladesh and India sign protocol to pact 2013 December 18: The Constitution (119th Amendment) Bill, 2013, introduced in Rajya Sabha Bill amends the First Schedule of the Constitution that defines the area of each State, Union Territory 2015 April 29: Cabinet clears the revised land boundary agreement delinking Assam. Centre likely to introduce revised Bill in Parliament next week II. http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2015/05/05/indian-cabinet-clears-lba-bill-in-parliament-wedensday Indian Cabinet clears LBA, bill in Parliament Wedensday New Delhi Correspondent, bdnews24.com Published: 2015-05-05 13:05:26.0 BdST Updated: 2015-05-05 22:50:07.0 BdST The Indian cabinet has cleared the draft of the bill to implement the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) with Bangladesh. RELATED STORIES Enclaves celebrate LBA deal clearance 2015-05-05 22:43:55.0 Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi against state's exclusion from LBA 2015-05-03 12:24:46.0 Assam MP apprehensive over LBA 2015-04-30 10:39:28.0 Assam Congress now opposes LBA 2015-04-18 17:43:24.0 India considers excluding Assam from Land Boundary Agreement with Bangladesh 2015-04-17 19:36:29.0 The original draft that included the enclaves of the northeastern state of Assam have been retained, negating speculations that those enclaves may be dropped under pressure from BJP's Assam unit. A top BJP leader in Assam, Prodyut Bora, has already resigned, protesting over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bangladesh policy. Top BJP leaders said that a meeting at party president Amit Shah's house late on Monday finalised the draft and decided to place it in original form. BJP MPs from Assam were present at the meeting. They were told that the party's national leadership has decided to go ahead with the original draft of their agreement that will contain the Assam enclaves. This change of BJP line follows furious criticism by Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who ripped apart the Modi government in a letter for not consulting the state government for any possible changes in the LBA draft. Modi also received indications from the Congress that they would not support the bill if the original draft is not placed. In that case, the BJP would not be able to get it through the Rajya Sabha (Upper House) where it does not have enough strength. Government sources say after the cabinet's clearance the bill is likely to be placed in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday for passage. If the bill sails through the Rajya Sabha with Congress and Trinamul support, it will then be cleared by the Lower House, Lok Sabha. Modi has been in a hurry to clear this bill in the current parliament session that ends on May 8. After that, he leaves on a high profile visit to China, Mongolia and South Korea from May 14 to 19. Modi is keen to visit Bangladesh in June, latest July, accodring to senior BJP leaders. Indian diplomats have told him he must not come to Dhaka 'empty-handed'. Hence, the rush to clear the bill. At one stage, it appeared Modi would give in to pressure from the BJP's Assam unit, which had stoutly opposed the LBA, saying it was 'against Assam's interest'. The BJP national leadership had discussed possibilities of keeping the Assam enclaves out of the purview of the proposed bill. But then came the letter from the Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who insisted that the bill should be passed in original and Assam should not be kept out of it. He raised two key questions - why is Modi not consulting the state government for possible changes and that Assam would actually gain rather than lose territory through the deal. Gogoi rubbished the BJP stance as 'cheap and misleading'. In the meeting at Amit Shah's Delhi residence, senior leaders like Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and Home Minister Rajnath Singh explained the 'urgent necessity' to clear the bill in the interest of 'India's prestige' as the issue of exchanging enclaves has been hanging fire since the 1974 Indira-Mujib pact. They also pointed out the need to maintain good relations with a friendly government in Bangladesh, which would stand severely embarrassed, if the bill was not passed in original. Rajnath Singh also said the bill needs to be cleared on humanitarian grounds as the enclave residents had lived like stateless entities for decades. Assam BJP chief Siddhartha Bhattacharjee and all party MPs were present in the meeting. Under the land boundary pact, India and Bangladesh want to exchange 161 enclaves, which are under each other's adverse possession. The agreement has to be ratified by Parliament through a constitution amendment bill. The bill was placed in India's Upper House in 2013 and subsequently referred to a select committee, headed by Shashi Tharoor of Congress, which "unanimously" recommended implementation of the LBA deal. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
