At the stroke of midnight, on August 1, 2015, India and Bangladesh formally exchanged 162 enclaves, ending a centuries-old territorial anomaly and finishing a strategy of land and inhabitants alternate. The 15,856 individuals in India dwelling within the 51 Bangladeshi enclaves and the 922 Indians who got here into the Indian mainland from Indian enclaves in Bangladesh had dreamt of a brighter future.
Nine years later, they’re all authorized Indian nationals however shouldn’t have papers for land and houses they possess.
“We were told that we would get documents for the land (before the treaty was signed). A land survey was conducted, and a flawed khatian (land survey record) was made, in which the land ownership claims did not match the survey result. A new khatian was supposed to be made, and we were to get papers for our land. But that has not happened yet,” says Saddam Hussein of Madhya Masgaldanga, an erstwhile enclave in Cooch Behar’s Dinhata.
The dwellers of the enclaves, who had land chunks, nonetheless get pleasure from these. They dwell, domesticate, increase cattle and goats on the land they name their very own however shouldn’t have paperwork to show it. “We are hopeful of getting rights for our land someday,” Hussein says.
Hari Barman is without doubt one of the 922 individuals who crossed into the Indian mainland from former Indian enclaves in Bangladesh. “Every family was allotted a 2 BHK flat to live in, in Cooch Behar. Although the district administration had then given us possession certificates in our names for the flats we live in, these are still not registered and mutated in government records,” Barman mentioned.

Barman, who got here from the erstwhile Dahala Khagrabari I enclave in Pancha garh district, Bangladesh, lives with 477 others in an house on the outskirts of Haldibari. Two related residences had been in-built Dinhata and Mekhliganj to accommodate the remaining 444 former Indian enclave dwellers.
There are round 14,000 voters from the previous enclaves in Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri parliamentary seats, which vote within the first part on April 19, and observers consider the delay in disbursing land and flat paperwork will have an effect, largely in Cooch Behar, the place there are 13,000 voters.
“There are nine MLAs in Cooch Behar and two MPs for the erstwhile enclave dwellers, both from BJP and TMC. But no one raised the issue in state assembly or Parliament.
This is the biggest issue for them in this election,” a neighborhood neta, who works within the former enclaves, mentioned.
Dipak Kumar Bhattacharya, president of Trinamool’s Dinhata II block, the place many of the enclaves are, mentioned the matter would take time to resolve. “This is not a normal land-transfer issue,” he mentioned. “This was foreign land, which Centre took possession of and handed over to Bengal govt. The people who have claims on these lands have to be given a hearing and their claims adjudicated by a land tribunal. An initial survey was completed but people had raised objections. The matter is being resolved. It cannot be done quickly, but we hope to complete it in fourfive months.”
Jibesh Biswas, BJP’s Cooch Behar district president, claimed the delay was “deliberate”. “These erstwhile enclaves are used by Trinamool to shelter criminals from Bangladesh. Once the people in the enclaves have their own land papers, they will not allow such illegal activity. What else could be the reason for them not getting land papers for nine years?” he instructed TOI.