Choice quite predictable

All residents of 51 Bangladeshi enclaves inside India would opt for Indian nationality, according to an unofficial survey.

None of the 14,215 inhabitants of those enclaves wants to come to the mainland as "Bangladeshi", says the survey conducted by India-Bangladesh Enclaves Exchange Coordination Committee, a non-government organisation.

However, 1,057 people of 223 families in 99 of the 111 Indian enclaves inside Bangladesh territory are willing to go to Indian mainland, found the committee that has been working on the enclaves since 1993.

The findings come as both Bangladesh and India launch today an official survey of their 162 enclaves as per the Land Boundary Agreement between the two neighbouring countries.

A total of 37,369 people live in the 111 Indian enclaves inside Bangladesh while 14,215 people live in the 51 Bangladeshi enclaves inside Indian territory.

Talking to our Kolkata correspondent over the phone on Saturday, Diptiman Sengupta, joint secretary of the coordination committee, said, "We have surveyed the 162 enclaves for the last two years since 2014. We found that no inhabitant of the Bangladeshi enclaves in India wanted to go to Bangladesh."

Sengupta said they were yet to include the statistics of 12 Indian enclaves in Kurigram. "We are working on it. Once finalised, we will submit the statistics to the Indian government."

Our Kolkata correspondent talked to a number of residents of Bangladeshi enclaves inside India to know why they would opt for Indian nationality. 

The residents said they made the choice considering the future of the next generation.

"Our children have built relations with many Indians through marriage. And we do not want to leave our homesteads at all," said Paresh Chandra Barman, an inhabitant of the Bangladeshi enclave of Puaturkuti inside India.

OFFICIAL SURVEY

A total of 75 survey teams, comprising five members each, will conduct a population and land survey in the 162 enclaves, and find out the inhabitants' choice of nationality.

Every team will have representatives from both countries, and a supervisor will monitor their activities.

The survey will continue till July 23, and the teams will submit reports to the authorities concerned of the two countries by the end of this month.

Fifty Indian teams will carry out survey in 111 Indian enclaves in Lalmonirhat, Kurigram, Panchagarh and Nilphamari, while 25 Bangladeshi teams will conduct survey in 51 Bangladeshi enclaves in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal.

A joint delegation of Bangladesh and India will finalise the survey and decide on the matter of citizenship of the enclave dwellers. It will then prepare a list of Bangladeshi and Indian nationals, and send it to the authorities concerned of the two countries.

The two governments will then finalise the list by July 31 and arrange for their rehabilitation in the country of their choice.

On Thursday, officials of the two countries held a meeting at Burimari Immigration Check Post of Patgram upazila in Lalmonirhat to discuss issues regarding the survey.

The 15-member Bangladesh team was led by Kurigram Deputy Commissioner ABM Azad, while the Indian side was headed by Cooch Behar District Magistrate P Ulaganathan.

After the meeting, Azad told reporters that if any inhabitant of Indian enclaves inside Bangladesh wants to get Indian citizenship, he or she would have to report it to the survey team. The procedure is the same for residents of Bangladeshi enclaves inside India.

On Saturday, West Bengal Home Secretary Basudev Banerjee told the Indian media that there would be no enclaves after July 31 midnight.