Parliament approves bill to settle 41-year-old border issue with B’desh

New Delhi: Settling the country’s 41-year-old border issue with Bangladesh, Parliament on Thursday unanimously passed a historic bill to operationalise the Land Boundary Agreement that provides for exchange of territories.
The Lower House, showing rare unanimity, passed the Constitution (119th Amendment) Bill to allow the operationalisation of the 1974 India-Bangladesh Land Boundary agreement.
All the 331 members present in the House voted for the bill which became the 100th Constitutional amendment passed by Parliament.
Soon after the passage, Prime Minister Narendra Modi walked up to the Opposition benches to thank leaders including Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, BJD’s B Mahtab, TMC’s Sudip Bandopadhyay and AIADMK leader P Venugopal.
The deadlock over the bill had ended earlier with the BJP-led NDA Government placing the bill in original form which included Assam, one of the major states.
Earlier, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said it was beneficial for both the countries and that there will a “notional” loss of territory without borders getting contracted.
Once the Indo-Bangladesh border gets redrawn, India will transfer 111 enclaves measuring 17,160.63 acres to Bangladesh and receive 51 enclaves measuring 7,110.2 acres. As far as Assam is concerned, India will be getting 470 acres of land from the neighbouring country, while 268 acres would go to Bangladesh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said in the parliament.
Swaraj said 80 per cent of India’s border with Bangladesh is demarcated and fenced, and once the Land Boundary Agreement is implemented, the remaining part of the border will also be defined and will eventually help in stopping illegal migration.
“A solution to the problem of illegal immigration is inherent in this legislation. With the land border now being decided (with the passage of the bill), the portions where there is no fencing will also get fenced,” she said.
Swaraj said the only issue which remained to be settled with Bangladesh was that of river water-sharing, primarily relating to Teesta river. “The way in which we are now settling the land boundary issue, we will try to settle this issue also.”
The maritime boundary between India and Bangladesh has also been settled last year with the award by the international tribunal.
Refuting allegations about India’s alleged ‘big brotherly’ attitude, the External Affairs Minister said “one is ‘big brother’ which symbolises arrogance. But there is also the ‘elder brother’ who is caring. Ours is a caring attitude. India will maintain the attitude of the ‘elder brother’ with our neighbours.”
She also announced a package of Rs 3,008 crore to West Bengal for rehabilitation of Indian nationals who will come from Bangladesh, with their numbers estimated to go up to 30,000.
Of this amount, Rs 775 crore is for expenses on fixed infrastructure and the remaining amount would be for variable expenses, depending upon how many people are to be rehabilitated by the state government.
Swaraj, in her speech, also referred to the Indira Gandhi-Mujibur Rahman Land Boundary Agreement of 1974 and the historic protocol signed between former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Bangladesh President Sheikh Hasina in September 2011 paving the way for elimination of Bangladeshi and Indian territorial enclaves.
Observing that she has been “transparent” in stating that her party BJP was earlier opposed to the bill, the Minister said it was primarily because of concerns that Assam’s interests would be adveresely affected. However, she said Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who had earlier expressed some reservations on similar lines, wrote to the Prime Minister and her, urging the Centre to include the clauses relating to the state.
AIUDF’s Sirajuddin Ajmal had reservations over the bill but Swaraj appealed to him to see that it is passed “without a single yellow button (which indicates abstention vote) being pressed.”
Referring to the unanimous passage of the bill by Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, the External Affairs Minister said “this has sent a message to Bangladesh that political parties in India do not have divergent views. The unity which was witnessed in the Rajya Sabha, if the same will be seen in the Lok Sabha then a very good message will be sent to Bangladesh.” (PTI with inputs from our Delhi Correspondent)