Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has instructed the Cooch Behar district magistrate and the district administration to distribute copies of the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) signed between India and Bangladesh for the exchange of enclaves, based on which around 16,000 Bangladeshis became Indian citizens in 2015.
Mamata, during her visit to Siliguri, was apprised about the concerns expressed by dwellers of erstwhile Bangladeshi enclaves, which are Indian villages now, in the wake of the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The dwellers, who are Indian voters since 2015, don't have their names in the 2002 electoral roll or any Indian document issued before 2015.
“The district magistrate of Cooch Behar and the administration should distribute copies of the agreement, in lieu of which these enclaves merged with India, making the people residing in those enclaves Indian citizens. If required, the residents will furnish this agreement (during or after the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) process) to prove their point,” the chief minister said on Monday.
In India, there were 51 Bangladeshi enclaves or Bangladeshi villages landlocked within India. In Bangladesh, there were 111 Indian enclaves.
As both countries signed the LBA, it was decided that the enclaves would merge with the countries. The residents were offered two options — either to take the citizenship of the country or return to their homeland.
Accordingly, all the 51 enclaves in Bengal's Cooch Behar district merged with India on the midnight of July 31, 2015, and around 16,000 people of these enclaves decided to stay back and take Indian citizenship. Around 950 Indians also came to India from the Indian enclaves in Bangladesh.
In due course, all of them were provided with voter, Aadhaar and PAN cards, and since then, they have been voting in elections.
As the EC announced SIR with the 2002 voter list as the benchmark, erstwhile enclave dwellers said they did not have any Indian documents issued ahead of 2015.
“We thank the chief minister for understanding our concern and hope that a copy of the LBA will help us to prove that we are Indian citizens and genuine voters,” said a senior resident of Madhya Mashaldanga, a former enclave located in Dinhata subdivision of Cooch Behar.