Crucial meet in Dhaka on Thursday

A meeting is scheduled to be held in Dhaka on Thursday to finalise the joint survey report on enclaves of both the sides in India and Bangladesh,a senior official said on Wednesday.

Officials of both the countries held a meeting at Changrabandha in Cooch Behar yesterday and exchanged data collected during the joint survey in the enclaves through 6-16 July for implementing the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) for exchange of the enclaves.

Though Indian officials have not yet declared how many people will be coming over to the Indian side from Bangladesh,various sources claimed that less than 1,000 families will be coming from the Indian enclaves in the Bangladesh part and that not a single person has opted for Bangladeshi citizenship from among the residents of the Bangladeshi enclaves in the Indian part.

Asked to comment, the assistant registrar general of India, SK Chakraborty, who is also a member of the India-Bangladesh Joint Working Group, said: “I will not divulge anything on the data collected during the joint survey.” “The process of finalizing the survey report is going on. Data have been exchanged between the two countries, and an important meeting will be held in Dhaka on 23 July on the matter, and we hope the matter will be finalised then,” Chakraborty told The Statesman over phone this evening.

Even as Chakraborty claimed that people in the Indian enclaves had no grievances despite reports that they were allegedly deprived of their right to choose their nationality, a human rights organisation has said it has collected many examples of such deprivation and that it has intimated the matter through letters to the prime ministers of both India and Bangladesh.

Copies of the same have been forwarded to the chief of the national human rights commission of both the countries and other Indian officials and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. The Manabadhikar Surakhsha Manch (Masum) secretary,Kirity Roy,alleged that the Joint Working Group had not functioned transparently during the survey. “They created a few procedural complications to exclude or include names whimsically,” Mr Roy has said in his letter.

The letter adds: “Procedural violations, omission and commission of duty have raised questions over the legalities and state’s accountability. It will again put thousands of enclave dwellers in a stateless situation.” Pointing out to various problems in several Indian enclaves, Masum has mentioned the names of 10 Hindu families, who are residents of Bhandardaha (No 67) (under the Mathabhanga police station in Cooch Behar), an Indian enclave, and claimed that they were denied justice and not listed in the survey.

A total of 37 members of the 10 families want to settle in India. The Masum secretary has urged authorities concerned to recall that India and Bangladesh both have taken voluntary pledge before the UN Human Rights Council to protect and promote human rights for all.

Source: The Statesman