119th Amendment Bill Land Boundary Agreement Short Note

Ques. 37. Critically analyse the Constitutional (119th amendment) bill that was recently cleared by the Parliamentary standing committee on External Affairs.

Ans. 119th Amendment deals with Land Boundary Agreement 1974 between India and Bangladesh which was then decided upon but was never ratified by India. This bill authorizes the handing over of 17,000 acres of territory to Bangladesh and get in return 7000 acres of land. The point to note is that this 17,000 acres of land is claimed to be India’s territory at present but is currently under control of Bangladesh and same goes for the 7000 acre in Bangladesh’s context.

17000 acres has 111 Indian enclaves spread over West Bengal, Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya and is said to have 37000 persons.

For doing this 119th constitution Amendment has to be passed in both the House of Parliament with 2/3rd majority. India is set to loose around 40 square km. of land in this agreement but there are many positive aspects too. It is expected to curb illegal migration reduce cross border terrorism and increase security.

Also all the 51,549 people living in enclaves on both sides will get citizenship rights of their respective country. Currently all of them are denied citizenship rights from both the countries. This position is set to solved by 119th Const. Amendment Bill.