India amended its constitution on 25 May 2015 to facilitate the implementation of the agreement. The 100th Amendment to the Indian Constitution states that it is “a law that will further amend the Indian constitution to implement the acquisition of territories by India and the transfer of certain areas to Bangladesh, in accordance with the agreement and its interim protocol between the governments of India and Bangladesh.” (The Constitution (One Hundredth Amendment) Act, 2015, THE GAZETTE OF INDIA, EXTRAORDINARY No. 27 (May 29, 2015), www.indiacode.nic.in/acts-in-pdf/2015/CONST100.pdf.) [1] Md. Azmeary Ferdoush, Acts of Belonging: The choice of citizenship in the former border enclaves of Bangladesh and India, Political Geography, Volume 70, April 2019, Pages 83-91, doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2019.01.015 Azmeary`s current project explores the way regional changes and transformation processes take place in the Arctic Finland and its adjacent regions, which is funded by the Eudaimonia Institute at the University of Oulu. For decades, relations between India and Bangladesh have been tarnished by the issue of a comprehensive settlement of the land border between the two countries, one of the important aspects of which has been the facilitation of late trade in border enclaves. These were areas entirely embedded in the foreign territory of the neighbour, making it difficult for the state to administrative control over the enclave and its inhabitants, themselves ungoverned for nearly seventy years and separated from their respective countries of origin. In some cases, the structure became further complicated by the existence of counter-enclaves and counter-enclaves, the enclave of one state being enclosed by the enclave of the other, etc. The 2015 Land Boundary Agreement served a historic role in promoting the exchange of 111 enclaves (17,160.63 hectares) from India to Bangladesh and reciprocally transferred 51 enclaves (7,110.02 hectares) to India. In addition, the choice of citizenship in both countries was offered by the states to enclave the inhabitants of the enclave. The border between India and Bangladesh – which is crucial for their bilateral relations – has always been difficult to manage because, on the one hand, it is so long. The most important bilateral initiative between Bangladesh and India could still be the attempt to resolve the long-standing border conflict that erupted after the 1947 partition by the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) in 2015 and the exchange of enclaves (Chhitmahals) and unfavourable possessions between the two countries. Nevertheless, the question remains: to what extent can this agreement and the exchange of enclaves and unfavourable goods pave the way for the resolution of other unresolved border issues that remain crucial? This document assesses the current situation following the exchange of enclaves and unfavourable possessions between India and Bangladesh.
The two prime ministers and West Bengal Prime Minister Mamata Banerjee of India also opened bus traffic along the border. [16] Saumitra Mohan, “India-Bangladesh: Revision of the Enclave Stock Exchange.” Mainstream Weekly, October 17, 2015. www.mainstreamweekly.net/article6012.html.