India and Bangladesh physically transferred 162 enclaves/chitmahals located on Indo-Bangladesh. Under the historic exchange, 51 Bangladeshi enclaves merged with India, while 111 Indian enclaves from West Bengal, Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and Mizoram merged with Bangladesh. The transfer took place in pursuant to the 1974 Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) and its Protocol of 2011 between both neighbouring countries. The exchange comes after the instruments for accession were ratified by both countries during the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Bangladesh in June 2015. This exchange gave citizenship identity to over 52,000 people of either country, thus giving them access to all legal rights and civic amenities. Earlier people in these enclaves were living a stateless existence for 68 years. Earlier under the LBA, a joint nationality preference survey was conducted in order to give the choice of nationality to the residents. Data from the survey is now being verified by the Office of the Registrar General of India (ORGI) and Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) to facilitate the trouble-free moving of residents before the stipulated deadline of 30th November 2015.
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