Bill redraws boundaries between the two countries by settling adverse possession areas in Assam, West Bengal, Tripura and Meghalaya with Bangladesh
Showcasing rare sight of cohesion, the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday unanimously passed the Constitution 119th Amendment Bill to settle the 41-year-old boundary dispute between India and Bangladesh.
The bill redraws boundaries between the two countries by exchanging enclaves of land and settling adverse possession areas in Assam, West Bengal, Tripura and Meghalaya with Bangladesh.
Once ratified and implemented the Land Boundary Agreement is expected to pave much stronger bonding between the two countries and thus open up new areas of cooperation including providing much needed access to northeastern states with the help of Bangladesh.
The historic bill passed by a thumping 181 votes of all members present in the Rajya Sabha will be taken up by the Lok Sabha on Thursday where it is expected to sail through.
It will then be sent for President's signature and then to the respective four state governments for ratification.
The new bill presented in Rajya Sabha was cleared by the union cabinet on Tuesday and included territories of Assam that the BJP government had dropped in the previous bill cleared by cabinet.
"Earlier we had opposed it. We were told to include Assam, by most of the members, which has been done," admitted external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj.
Acknowledging the efforts of previous Congress-led UPA government for doing all the spadework for the bill, Swaraj said, "This work has been done by Dr Manmohan Singh, I am only accomplishing it."
The union home ministry will be the nodal ministry to implement the agreement and complete the rehabilitation process, including giving citizenship to people choosing to live in India with the help of state governments.
Agreeing with the issues flagged by Congress's Mani Shankar Aiyar, Swaraj said, "We are aware of the complexities involved in implementation of the agreement. The earlier we implement (the agreement), sooner we reap the benefits," she said.
Allaying fears expressed by many members of swapping leading to shrinking of borders, Swaraj said, "This agreement will not shrink our borders. We will have an advantage of 500 acres. Though 10,000 acres will go to them, it is just notional and those enclaves are deep and cannot be accessed by us."
Ensuring that there would be no demographic change as population is not being exchanged, Swaraj said that people's wishes would be given full respect.
"If Bangladeshi people living in Indian enclaves want to come to India we will allow them. Similarly, we will ensure that Indian that chose to live in Bangladesh live a life of dignity," said Swaraj.
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