Joint teams from Bangladesh and India on Friday began the first-ever headcount in enclaves along the border with an aim to exchange landlocked areas between the two neighbouring countries.
The much-awaited census was launched from Bhotbari (Seat No 16), an Indian enclave at Patgram, amid cheers from the residents who have long been hoping to merge with the mainland as Bangladeshis.
Around one hundred residents, including women and children, gathered at the house of Mojaharul Islam of Bhotbari, home to more than 200 families, about 1:00pm to see the census begin.
Majeda Begum, wife of Mojaharul who is a community leader, said, ‘I am happy that the enumeration has begun at last.’
She said the enclave people wanted to get rid of the uncertainties as they did not have a country to look after their wellbeing.
‘The enclave is a like a jail to us. We hope the headcount would bring an end to the decade-old problems we are facing here with no authority to look after the residents,’ Mohammad Boktar Uddin, 65, told New Age.
He has been living in Bhotbari, under the jurisdiction of the Indian district of Cooch Behar, since his birth.
Locals said this was the first-ever census since the British left the sub-continent in 1947. They welcomed the
census hoping that the areas would soon merge with the Bangladesh mainland.
An official concerned said a total of 125 teams, each comprising two enumerators – one from Bangladesh and the other from India – are conducting the headcounts in the enclaves – 111 in the Bangladesh territory belonging to India and 51 in the Indian territory belonging to Bangladesh.
The Indian teams entered into Bangladesh in the morning and joined a joint training session at a local school at Patgram just before the headcount began. Local administration officials responsible for the task maintained confidentiality although there was general rejoicing at the event.
A Bangladeshi observer team led by the home ministry’s joint secretary (political) Kamal Uddin Ahmed visited a number of enclaves to see the census in the landlocked areas.
‘The headcount has begun simultaneously in the districts of Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, Kurigram and Panchagarh here and in the Indian district of Cooch Behar after the joint training session,’ said Kamal Uddin, also leading the Joint Boundary Working Group from Bangladesh side.
Talking to New Age, he said the headcount would hopefully be completed today.
An observer team from the Indian side led by its deputy high commissioner in Dhaka also visited the enumeration sites.
Officials from both the sides said that neither India nor Bangladesh had any clear information on their citizens living in the landlocked areas under their respective jurisdiction.
Talking to New Age, Dipendra Kumar Barma, an Indian enumerator, termed the headcount as an historic event. He said that all they wanted was to make the census successful.
Around 60 enumerators crossed into India through Burimari land-port on Friday morning to conduct census in the Bangladeshi enclaves located in Cooch Behar.
Enclave people 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 headcount is being conducted under the supervision of a joint boundary working group set up by the two neighbours as part of an initiative to resolve the decades-old issues relating to the adversely possessed lands, enclaves and 6.5 kilometres of undemarcated land boundary with India, the officials said.
A major decision was expected on the matters during the Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Dhaka in September, according to officials at the foreign affairs and the home ministries.
The enumerators are filling in a simple form with basic information on the enclave people such as name, father’s name, mother’s name, age and sex 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.
-With New Age input
