Land, NREGA job, fixed deposit part of rehab offer

Besides, a fixed deposit of Rs 2 lakh for each family and job guarantees for the initial years under the MNREGA have been proposed. Land for rehabilitation would be chosen from enclaves that have come into the possession of Indian authorities.

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Official sources said that out of 111 Indian enclaves that have gone to Bangladesh, only 69 were inhabited. Similarly, of the 51 enclaves that have come to India’s possession, only 37 had human settlements.

This gives the district administration the flexibility to offer land to rehabilitate those who will opt for a transfer, sources said.

A semi-official exercise conducted after a census operation in many of the enclaves in 2011 by the Bharat Bangladesh Enclave Exchange Coordination Committee had shown that about 149 families, with a head count of 743, including one Muslim family, wanted to shift to the Indian side.

Diptiman Sengupta, a member of that committee, said government machinery should be engaged to find out the present status after the actual signing of the treaty. “What we had done was before the implementation of the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA), things might have changed on the ground. My information from dwellers in Bangladeshi enclaves is that not many want to shift,” said Sengupta.

On Sunday, Barun Roy, Divisional Commissioner (Jalpaiguri Division), convened a meeting of all district magistrates and superintendents of police in charge of areas that would be affected by the exchange of enclaves.

Roy told The Indian Express that the administration is yet to receive any instructions from the Centre and state government following the signing of the treaty. “We discussed the rehabilitation package and other formalities to be completed,” Roy said.

State government officials said the proposed rehabilitation package is based on the financial assistance —  of about Rs 3,300 crore in the first installment — that the Centre government has offered to West Bengal.

Meanwhile, the enclave dwellers in Cooch Behar celebrated the swapping of land for the second consecutive day, taking out a procession of several thousand at Moshaldanga enclave, about 40 km from Cooch Behar town, where people from other enclaves had gathered.

However, district officials and politicians in Cooch Behar agreed that the real challenge would be to assimilate a community of people who had been deprived of “all basic human rights and facilities since their birth”.

Prosenjit Barman, a veteran Congress Rajya Sabha member who is now associated with various welfare associations in Cooch Behar, said it would take long before the hardships of the enclave dwellers are really over.

“These enclaves have no infrastructure, no schools, no healthcare system, no drinking water supply network, no electricity, no police stations, no block development. The challenge is big,” he said.

Saddam Hussein, a 25 year old from the Moshaldanga enclave, said, “The electric lines pass through our village and the poles were erected on the land we possess but not a single home got any electricity connection as we were condemned to a life in the enclaves where people thought only thugs live.”

Hussein added that he also hopes to set the record straight at the Dinhata college where he is pursuing a B.Com degree. During admission, he had to provide the names of “fake parents and an Indian address” to get admitted, he said.