Akbar Ali of Madhya-mashal Danga was 15 or 16, when World War II broke out. After the tumultuous days of Partition, in 1947, Ali became a citizen of East Pakistan. His citizenship status changed to Bangladeshi in 1972.
But never ever did Ali get an opportunity to use his franchise. Living in a Bangladeshi enclave in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, surrounded by India, he was in a state of limbo. That is set to change now.
After nearly a year, since the previous Manmohan Singh government tabled it in the Rajya Sabha in December 2013, all political parties on Tuesday unanimously agreed to clear the Land Boundary Agreement (Constitutional Amendment) Bill, in the current winter session.
Once cleared by both houses of Parliament, which is now a certainty, India will ratify the Land Boundary Agreement proposed at least thrice since 1958.
Under the provisions of the Bill, agreed on at the concluding meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs on November 25, both countries will swap their enclaves in foreign territory. These include some adversely possessed land (APL) parcels — mostly located on either side of the international border passing through Barak Valley in Assam — and 162 enclaves across the 100-km stretch along Cooch Behar district.
An APL is a piece of territory, linked to the mother country by a small strip of land which is difficult to access. Overall 665 acres are in adverse possession of either country on the Assam border.
In contrast, enclaves are completely landlocked. There are 111 such Indian territories spread over 17,000 acres at Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari and Kurigram districts in Bangladesh. Bangladesh has 51 enclaves over 7,100 acres inside Cooch Behar.
According to a head count last year, nearly 51,500 people live in the 162 enclaves. The population of APLs is not known. Once the international border is redrawn, people living in such land parcels will be allowed to switch their nationality.
According to a survey by the India Bangladesh enclave coordination committee in 2013, only 743 people out of 37,000 living in Indian enclaves in Bangladesh were interested in migrating to India following a land-swap. No one from the over 14,000 in Bangladeshi enclaves in India wants to migrate.
The 90-year-old Ali, for example, has no plan to migrate. He is, rather, looking forward to casting his vote, for the first time in his life, in the 2016 Assembly elections in West Bengal.
For those who will be migrating from the Bangladeshi side, the draft Bill has a provision for rehabilitation in coordination with the State Government.