Assam Land to Bangladesh

Assam is that yummy cake in the hands of the Govt of India, whenever they decide they can give away pieces of Assam to anybody and everybody. This has been happening again and again. During British reign they made Yandaboo Treaty and give away Assam to Myanmar, after Independence parts of Assam was almost on the verge of  given away to East Pakistan. Luckily we had a strong Chief Minister(called Prime Minister at that time) Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi who saved Assam from being attached to the erstwhile East Pakistan. On 7th of september 2011 this happened yet again. Land of Assam allegedly in adverse possession is given away to Bangladesh.

The govt of India has been contemplating  a land swap with the Govt of Bangladesh for quite a long time now. And as expected this plan has invited controversy from all angles. When Minister of  State for Home Affairs Shri  Mullapally Ramachandran has mentioned that  Bangladesh is in *adverse possession of 665 acres of land in Assam  then this dispute took a new twist altogether. The Chief Minister of Assam Mr Tarun Gogoi has mentioned  recently that the settlement of border dispute can be done through an exchange of disputed land(land in adverse possession) between India and Bangladesh. But this decision created a lot fury in the people of Assam.

Indian Minister of State for Home Affairs has cited documents which testifies his comment. The reports from  Fourth Joint Boundary Working Group  meeting  held at Delhi in November, 2010  the amount of land under Adverse possession was mentioned . This report says that  Bangladesh has 505 acres in Karimganj district of Assam along with  160 acres in adverse possession in Dhubri districts of Assam.

On September 7, the Land swapping between Assam(India) and Bangladesh ultimately happened through the land border agreement between the Prime Minister and Assam Chief Minister and Bangladesh Govt.  People are protesting this decision and AASU has burnt effigies of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh  and Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi. In a scene where Bangkadesh Govt is still not ready to accept the deported Bangladeshi citizens from India and the govt of India is doing nothing about that, why this hullabaloo for adverse possession by Bangladesh. But  according to CM Tarun Gogoi Assam would gain more from the land swapping which he indicated just before the tour to Bangladesh.

Reflecting the protest in Assam about the land swapping in parliament  MP from Assam  Biren Baishya has protested in the Parliament against this land swapping. Cabinet Minister Mr P. Chidambaram  has confirmed that he will make a statement when the Prime Minister and his delegation get back to India. But the loss is already happened. May be more agitation ins Assam is on store... 

I wish the Chief Minsiter of Assam could learn a lesson or two from the neighbourhood Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee who put her foot down just prior to one day because of the looming tension over Teesta Pact with Bangladesh  during the Bangladesh tour. 

*(what is adverse possession?

Adverse possession means  when the real estate law allows a person to possess someone else's land. In other words Adverse possession is a process by which premises can change ownership. Law says that land claimed under adverse possession does not involve any payment for the swapped land.).