Trinamool Congress has announced that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will accompany Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Dhaka next week for the signing of the land boundary agreement with Bangladesh. The Teesta water-sharing issue is also likely to come up for discussion. Syed Muazzem Ali, Bangladesh High Commissioner to India said, that he is “quite hopeful” that “something positive” will come out of the talks in India on the Teesta deal.
“We want a win-win situation for both India and Bangladesh. The presence of the Chief Minister will ensure that interest of West Bengal is not jeopardised,” State's Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said. West Bengal Chief Minister has already given her nod regarding the implementation of the Land Boundary Agreement and she has also softened her stand regarding the Teesta water sharing treaty.
On February 2015, Mamatha has visited Bangladesh for an “ice-breaking” meeting and the Trinamool Congress followed it by backing the land boundary agreement. This will ensure territories in Assam, West Bengal, Meghalaya and Tripura are being exchanged with Bangladesh. Many of these are enclaves (territory belonging to one country entirely surrounded by the other country), even enclaves within enclaves.
Prime Minister has done his homework for the Dhaka trip. Parliament has passed the Constitution amendment bill to settle India's 41-year-old border issue with Bangladesh. The bill will operationalize the 1974 India-Bangladesh Land Boundary agreement that provides for outright exchange of 161 enclaves held by the two countries. The Centre is working out a rehabilitation package for enclave dwellers who are willing to come to India. Mamata Banerjee's party lent its support to the Bill, after external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj has given a specific assurance on the rehabilitation.
High Commissioner Syed Muazzem Ali said: “On Teesta, we had a broad-based agreement and it was about to be concluded during former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit. I think the West Bengal government raised certain objections regarding the quantum of water they were receiving from Sikkim. And there were discussions going on between the Union government, West Bengal government and Sikkim. That process is still continuing. Prime Minister Modi has also gone there, I saw in the newspapers that Home Minister Rajnath Singh too has gone to West Bengal.”
“So the dialogue process, if it reaches a conclusive step, we will be very happy to sign the agreement. Mamata Banerjee, on her recent visit to Bangladesh, also made reconciliatory efforts. So, we hope something positive will come out of the internal negotiations going on here and we look forward to the conclusion of the Teesta agreement as soon as possible. Whether it will come through during this visit, I really cannot say because the discussions are still going on. But we are quite hopeful that something positive will come out,” he added.
By Premji
