India has assured Bangladesh that agreements on the
Teesta Water Treaty and demarcation of land boundaries will soon become a
reality.
This assurance was given to Bangladeshi
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina by Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh
who visited that country early this week.
“Of
course, there were concerns on Teesta and land boundary agreement that
were raised by Bangladesh and I reassured the Prime Minister that our
government is committed to both these agreements becoming a reality
soon,” the Minister told PTI.
On Teesta river
treaty, which has been put on hold after West Bengal Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee expressed some reservations, Mr. Ramesh said he has
assured Hasina that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh “is in touch with the
West Bengal Chief Minister” to address the concerns raised by her.
“We
are working with the West Bengal Chief Minister to address their
concerns. We recognise the importance of the Teesta and Land Boundary
Agreements,” he said.
On the Land Boundary Agreement,
he said, “We are hoping that we will be able to introduce the
Constitutional Amendment Bill” in the current session of Parliament.
The Indian government has to get the agreement ratified by Parliament before implementing it as it involves exchange of land.
At
a meeting between Foreign Secretaries of the two countries here last
month, Bangladesh had conveyed its unhappiness about non-implementation
of the land boundary agreement.
Bangladesh had also
raised the issue of Teesta water-sharing which could not be signed last
year because of strong opposition by UPA constituent Trinamool Congress.
The
agreement on demarcation of the border and exchange of enclaves, over
which the two sides had reached an accord in 1974, will cover 111
enclaves in India and 51 on the other side in which about 51,000 people
reside.
The people in the enclaves will be given the
right to continue to reside there itself or choose the country of
residence, it is learnt.
