Indo-Bangla joint survey in LBA enclaves over nationality preference concludes l

The official nationality preference survey in recently swapped 162 enclaves on India- Bangladesh border under the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) has ended. The survey was conducted by the Enclaves Exchange Co-ordination Committee (EECC) of both countries for ascertaining the nationality preference of over 50,000 enclave-residents. On Bangladesh’s side it is found that 1,027 out of around 37,369 had opted for Indian nationality from the recently swapped 111 Indian enclaves now located in Bangladesh. In case of India’s side, over 14,000 residents in 51 Bangladeshi enclaves transferred to India have opted to relocate to Bangladesh. Background The nationality preference survey was conducted by 75 joint-teams of EECC under the modalities of the LAB. The agreement came in to effect after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Bangladesh in June 2015. India had swapped around 111 enclaves to Bangladesh, while the counterpart had had swapped 51 enclaves. As per LBA, all 162 enclaves will stand transferred to the two respective countries on midnight of 31 July, 2015.