Agencies
GUWAHATI, DECEMBER 21
[dropcap]E[/dropcap]ven as normal life in the state was affected on Friday by the 12-hour bandh called by BJP in protest against the Centre introducing a constitutional amendment bill in the Rajya Sabha to ratify the India-Bangladesh land swap deal, chief minister Tarun Gogoi acknowledged that the state’s physical map will now be redrawn, which will reduce the state’s area from what it has been since Partition.“Assam’s map will be altered once this treaty comes into force and we will lose land on the map,” he said. He, however, added: “The land we’re set to lose existed only on the map, but actually has been in adverse possession of Bangladesh. Since partition, Bangladesh has been in adverse possession of 698.85 acres of our land, but now we will get back physical possession of 430.45 acres of this land that belongs to us.”
According to the deal, Bangladesh will now continue to have possession of only 268.40 acres of land of the 698.85 acres of Assam land that has been under its adverse possession after the treaty is ratified by Parliament. The land that Bangladesh will retain includes 193.85 acres in Boroibari area of Dhubri district and 74.55 acres in Madanpur area of Karimganj district.
Apart from Assam, the other Indian stakeholders in this treaty are Tripura, Meghalaya and West Bengal, all of which share the international boundary with Bangladesh. Only West Bengal has enclaves among all these bordering states.
Gogoi slammed BJP for trying to confuse people and “deliberately covering the ground reality that the land in question has been shown as Assam’s land only on the map but has been in possession of Bangladesh and not of Assam.”
