No man’s land: Enclave dwellers stuck in a limbo | India News

On the stroke of midnight, on August 1, 2015, India and Bangladesh formally exchanged 162 enclaves, ending a centuries-old territorial anomaly and finishing a technique of land and inhabitants change. The 15,856 individuals in India residing within the 51 Bangladeshi enclaves and the 922 Indians who got here into the Indian mainland from Indian enclaves in Bangladesh had dreamt of a brighter future.
9 years later, they’re all authorized Indian nationals however do not need papers for land and houses they possess.
“We have been instructed that we might get paperwork for the land (earlier than the treaty was signed). A land survey was performed, and a flawed khatian (land survey file) was made, during which the land possession claims didn’t match the survey outcome. A brand new khatian was purported to be made, and we have been to get papers for our land. However that has not occurred but,” says Saddam Hussein of Madhya Masgaldanga, an erstwhile enclave in Cooch Behar’s Dinhata.
The dwellers of the enclaves, who had land chunks, nonetheless get pleasure from these. They dwell, domesticate, increase cattle and goats on the land they name their very own however do not need paperwork to show it. “We’re hopeful of getting rights for our land sometime,” Hussein says.
Hari Barman is likely one of the 922 individuals who crossed into the Indian mainland from former Indian enclaves in Bangladesh. “Each household was allotted a 2 BHK flat to dwell in, in Cooch Behar. Though the district administration had then given us possession certificates in our names for the flats we dwell in, these are nonetheless not registered and mutated in authorities data,” Barman mentioned.

Barman, who got here from the erstwhile Dahala Khagrabari I enclave in Pancha garh district, Bangladesh, lives with 477 others in an house on the outskirts of Haldibari. Two related residences have been inbuilt Dinhata and Mekhliganj to accommodate the remaining 444 former Indian enclave dwellers.
There are round 14,000 voters from the previous enclaves in Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri parliamentary seats, which vote within the first section on April 19, and observers imagine the delay in disbursing land and flat paperwork will have an effect, largely in Cooch Behar, the place there are 13,000 voters.
“There are 9 MLAs in Cooch Behar and two MPs for the erstwhile enclave dwellers, each from BJP and TMC. However nobody raised the problem in state meeting or Parliament.
That is the largest problem for them on this election,” a neighborhood neta, who works within the former enclaves, mentioned.
Dipak Kumar Bhattacharya, president of Trinamool’s Dinhata II block, the place a lot of the enclaves are, mentioned the matter would take time to resolve. “This isn’t a standard land-transfer problem,” he mentioned. “This was international land, which Centre took possession of and handed over to Bengal govt. The individuals who have claims on these lands need to be given a listening to and their claims adjudicated by a land tribunal. An preliminary survey was accomplished however individuals had raised objections. The matter is being resolved. It can’t be achieved rapidly, however we hope to finish it in fourfive months.”
Jibesh Biswas, BJP’s Cooch Behar district president, claimed the delay was “deliberate”. “These erstwhile enclaves are utilized by Trinamool to shelter criminals from Bangladesh. As soon as the individuals within the enclaves have their very own land papers, they won’t permit such criminal activity. What else might be the explanation for them not getting land papers for 9 years?” he instructed TOI.