The authorities have made all-out preparations to launch the much-awaited joint headcounts in enclaves along the Bangladesh-India border today.
Aimed at exchanging the land-locked areas between the two neighbours, the first-ever census after the end of the British rule in 1947 was scheduled to begin on Thursday.
'But the work is delayed by a day as the Indian side took time to complete their preparations. We have made all-out preparations to carry out the task,' a senior home ministry official said.
The official told New Age on Thursday that 125 teams, each composed of two enumerators — one from Bangladesh and the other from India — were kept ready to conduct the headcounts smoothly in the enclaves — 111 in the Bangladesh territory belonging to India and 51 in the Indian territory belonging to Bangladesh.
The Indian teams would come to Bangladesh on Friday morning and join a joint training session just before the headcounts would begin, officials at Lalmonirhat said.
Residents in the Indian enclaves located inside Bangladesh are not aware when the headcounts would begin exactly as the local administration is trying to keep the move confidential 'so that it does not panic the enclave people.'
A deputy commissioner concerned said that local administration was asked not to disclose anything about the headcount before it ends successfully.
'We have come to know that the census would be conducted for the exchange of enclaves between Bangladesh and India but we do not know when it will begin,' said Anwar Ali, 65, an inhabitant of Indian enclave Bhitarkuthi near Kulaghat in Lalmonirhat.
He said that most eligible voters of the land-locked area had managed to get national identity cards and they had constructed houses in Bangladesh's mainland.
The Lalmonirhat upazila nirbahi officer, Shamim Alam, said that all the
enumerators were given training as the headcount would begin today simultaneously in Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, Kurigram and Panchagarh in Bangladesh and in Cooch Behar in India. The headcounts will continue till Saturday.
The home minister, Sahara Khatun, on Tuesday directed the local administrations concerned to take precautions so that nothing untoward could take place centring on the first-ever census in the enclaves.
She gave the directives at a coordination meeting on matters relating to enclaves, adversely possessed lands and undemarcated land boundary, with local administrators that included Rangpur divisional commissioner and all the deputy commissioners of four districts — Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, Kurigram and Panchagarh.
Neither India nor Bangladesh has any clear information on their citizens living in the land-locked areas under their respective jurisdiction.
Enclave inhabitants are confined to small pieces of land on which neither India nor Bangladesh has any administrative control as the areas of one country are separated by the land of the other.
The headcounts will be conducted under the supervision of a joint boundary working group set up by the two neighbours as part of an initiative to resolve the decade-old issues relating to the adversely possessed land, enclaves and 6.5 kilometres of undemarcated land boundary with India, the officials said.
A major decision was expected on the matters during the visit of India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, to Dhaka in September, according to officials at the foreign affairs and the home ministries.
The enumerators would fill in a simple form with basic information on the enclave people such as name, father's name, age and profession so that the move does not panic them, an official concerned said.
Both the governments have agreed in principle to sign a deal on the exchange of the enclaves in keeping with the Mujib-Indira land boundary agreement signed between the two countries in 1974.
Most people in Indian enclaves surrounded by the Bangladesh territory identify themselves as Bangladesh citizens and many of them have already managed to get national identity cards taking the advantage of lax local administration.
There are 111 Indian enclaves in Lalmonirhat, Kurigram and Nilphamari, whereas 51 Bangladeshi enclaves are in Cooch Behar, the home affairs ministry's records show. Fifty-one Indian enclaves are in Lalmonirhat alone.
Source : New Age
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