Bangladesh-India's joint survey for final verification has begun on Monday morning to ascertain the residents of the enclaves of their citizenship.
The joint survey began at Bhitorkuti-Daspota enclave in Lalmonirhat district. The survey will be conducted in all the 162 enclaves inside two neighbouring countries, official sources said. Over 60 officials are conducting the survey in 111 Indian enclaves inside Bangladesh and 34 officials are conducting it in the 51 Bangladesh enclaves inside India, says news portal bdnews24.com.
Land record officials from both India and Bangladesh were present with other officials when the survey started at Bhitorkuti-Daspota in Lalmonirhat.
The mobility of the residents of the enclaves from one country to another, if they wish to do so, will be completed by November 30 this year, stated the letters that were exchanged early last month between the foreign secretaries of Bangladesh and India in the presence of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi in Dhaka.
Lamonirhat district has highest number, 59, Indian enclaves in Bangladesh.
The officials of two countries will jointly visit the enclaves to inform the residents about the provisions contained in the 1974 Agreement and the 2011 Protocol, including their rights relating to nationality and citizenship.
The survey started exactly a month after the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) was formalised through exchange of documents during Modi's official visit to Dhaka.
The officials were involved in house-to-house survey for enumeration and ascertaining citizenship and the report will be placed before the Joint Boundary Working Group.
The survey will end on July 16 and the history will be made on July 31 midnight when the enclaves will be swapped. The memorable day has been dubbed as 'Appointed Day'.
The details will be posted in the public domain by the administrations and the governments will "facilitate remittance of sales proceeds" of the property.
The transfer of 162 enclaves will be in effect from the midnight of July 31, according to the text of the "Letters on Modalities for Implementation of India-Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) 1974" and "Protocol of 2011 to the Land Boundary Agreement".
Bangladesh and India will print, sign at plenipotentiary level and exchange the strip maps of the un-demarcated sectors by the 'Appointed Day'.
Bangladesh and India will implement the Land Boundary Agreement of 1974 and Protocol of 2011, in a phased manner over the next 11 months.
As per LBA, Bangladesh will hand over 51 enclaves, comprising 7,110 acres to India while India will hand over 111 enclaves comprising around 17,160 acres to Bangladesh.
According to the headcount of 2011, there are 37,383 people in 111 Indian enclaves in Bangladesh covering 17,160.63 acres and 14,090 people in 51 Bangladeshi enclaves in India covering an area of 7,110.02 acres.
Residents of enclaves will be able to sell their land and take with them movable assets, like money, while migrating to the country of their choice as per the land swap deal between Bangladesh and India.
But before that they would have to apply for the citizenship of the country of their choice to the Bangladesh-India joint commission.