50,000 Indian residents of enclaves near Cooch Behar on the India-Bangladesh border will be given the choice of citizenship under a proposed border agreement between the two countries.
Fifty-one Bangladeshi enclaves in India and 111 Indian enclaves in Bangladesh are to be exchanged under the agreement. Union home minister P. Chidambaram said 51,590 people live in the enclaves, of whom 37,369 are Indians. Chidambaram told the Rajya Sabha that people living in an enclave “shall be given the right of staying on where they are as nationals of the state” to which the area will be transferred. “That option is given to the people.”
Residents of an Indian enclave to be transferred to Bangladesh can opt to take Bangladeshi citizenship or move to India where it would be the Indian government’s responsibility to provide them land for resettlement.