Indian cabinet okays border pact with Bangladesh
Stalled since September last year, a constitutional amendment to ratify the India-Bangladesh boundary agreement got the nod from the Indian Cabinet committee on Security (CCS) on Thursday.
It is likely to be placed before parliament in the monsoon session, reports Times of India.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina had signed the land boundary agreement (LBA) in Dhaka last year. An updated version of the Indira-Mujib agreement of 1974, the accord's ratification will require a constitutional amendment of Article 368.
While the Indian government looks to concretise the LBA, the political climate in India is fragile enough for uncertainty to cloud the positive nature of the endeavour.
The constitutional amendment will have to be passed by two-thirds of members "present and voting" and ratified by state legislatures.
India and Bangladesh share a 4,096km land boundary covering West Bengal, Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and Mizoram. Around 53,000 people residing in the enclaves, who have just been counted in the first ever census in these areas, will get the citizenship of the country they are living in.
The LBA will not only change contours of India's map, but will be the first resolved boundary with any neighbour. The agreement will formalise status quo on enclaves and areas under adverse possession, entailing neither transfer of territory nor people.
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