Shillong: Social organisations in Meghalaya today said they would put pressure on the state government to ask the Centre to exempt the state from the Constitution (119th Amendment) Bill, 2013, which relates to swapping of land between India and Bangladesh.
The Congress-led government in Meghalaya is in favour of the legislation.
“We will meet the chief minister and other state ministers to seek their intervention to ensure that Meghalaya is exempted from the Protocol,” G.H. Kharshanlor, spokesperson for the Coordination Committee on International Border, said.
The move stems from the reported proposal to keep Assam out of the ambit of the bill.
The committee, a conglomerate of social organisations, has been opposing the Protocol to the Land Boundary Agreement signed between India and Bangladesh during the visit of then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Dhaka in September 2011.
It comprises groups like the Khasi Students’ Union, Federation of Khasi, Jaintia and Garo People, Hynniewtrep National Youth Front, Federal Council of War Mihngi and War Jaintia, landowners and village councils.
The bill, which was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on December 18, 2013, was referred to the Standing Committee on External Affairs on December 31, 2013. The standing committee, chaired by Congress Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor, submitted its report on the bill on December 1, 2014.
According to the report, the Protocol provides that of the 2,777.038 acres of land in adverse possession to be acquired by India, 240.578 acres will come under the Meghalaya sector. Under the same sector, the land under adverse possession to be transferred to Bangladesh is 41.702 acres from the total of 2,267.682 acres.
An adverse possession of land is a portion of territory contiguous to India’s border and within Indian control, but which is legally part of Bangladesh. Residents of these adverse possessions are Indian citizens. The same applies to Bangladeshi adverse possessions.
The report pointed out that the Protocol provides for redrawing of boundaries to maintain the status quo of adverse possessions and has dealt with them on an “as is where is basis” by converting “de facto control into de jure recognition”.
The committee was of the strong opinion that the bill was “in overall national interest as it would pave the way for broader bilateral ties with one of our closest neighbours, Bangladesh”.
“Delays in the passage of the bill have needlessly contributed to the perpetuation of a huge humanitarian crisis,” it opined.
It also noted that “difficulties of the people living in the enclaves of both countries would come to an end after the act is passed by Parliament”.
However, the report pointed out that a “modest demographic change” in both India and Bangladesh was expected to take place after the Protocol comes into force.
“Not only would some Indian citizens return to the mainland from the previously held enclaves but a number of currently Bangladeshi nationals would also be given Indian citizenship after the area is ceded to India. The committee is of the opinion that the security dimensions of this influx of population should be considered seriously by the government.”
During the budget session of the state Assembly in March, governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, while delivering the customary address, pointed out that the state government has been “urging the Centre to ratify the Protocol signed with Bangladesh so that people on both sides are able to derive the potential socio-economic benefits that a well-defined and settled border offers”.
Kharshanlor reminded that prior to the signing of the protocol, the Joint Boundary Working Group, comprising officials from India and Bangladesh, carried out a joint survey in 2010-2011 in the Meghalaya sector without taking the stakeholders into consideration, which resulted in the loss of vast tracts of Indian land.
“The total land under adverse possession from border pillars No. 1251 to 1299 (excluding Ratacherra area) in Meghalaya sector is 559.7 acres. Under the land-swap deal, Meghalaya will get 240.5 acres and 41.7 acres will go to Bangladesh. What about the remaining 278 acres of land?” he asked.
Kharshanlor patted the people of Assam for standing firm against the agreement while expressing regret that the Meghalaya government had strongly backed the deal.
The committee had met BJP chief Amit Shah during his maiden visit here last week and impressed upon him to urge the Centre to exempt Meghalaya from the land deal.
Gogoi reaction
Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi told reporters at the state secretariat in Guwahati that the BJP, which had initially opposed the bill pushed by the erstwhile UPA government at the Centre, was an opportunist.
“They don’t want to resolve the border fencing issue. They are opportunists. They have excluded Assam with an eye on the 2016 Assembly election,” Gogoi said.
Gogoi was in the Indian delegation led by then Prime Minister Singh to Dhaka in 2011. Assam had backed the deal, saying it would be mutually beneficial and would help resolve border disputes and influx issues.
The AGP today said the Centre’s decision to exclude Assam from the Constitution amendment bill to ratify the land boundary agreement with Bangladesh had vindicated their stand that it was detrimental to the interest of the state.
AGP general secretary Durgadas Boro said the Centre was compelled to take the decision because of strong protests by people of the state and former AGP MPs Birendra Prasad Baishya and Kumar Deepak Das in Parliament though BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had initially maintained that the agreement was in the interest of Assam.
Boro, however, expressed doubt that it could be a gimmick by the BJP government at the Centre with an eye on the 2016 Assembly polls and asked the people to remain vigilant.
Welcoming the decision, the BJP’s Assam unit vice-president C.K. Das said from the very beginning the state unit was opposed to ceding even an inch of Assam’s land to Bangladesh and expressed happiness that the Centre had finally agreed to it.
Das said it was the BJP members, led by senior party leaders, who had hoisted the national flag on the land at Lathitila-Dumabari area in Karimganj district of Assam, which was proposed to be transferred to Bangladesh according to the boundary agreement.
