Trinamul bid to woo the enclave people
The Trinamul Congress is going ahead with a plan to exert its influence among the residents of the Indian ''chhitmahals' (enclaves). They want to build up a massive movement by highlighting the problems and miseries of the enclaves and the people live there. The party wants to make it known that an enclave is nothing but a piece of land whose residents have no identity, no citizenship and nothing to prove that they belong to any country. They have to live there encircled by mainland of another country. The aim of the Trinamul Congress is to convince the Centre that exchange of 'chhitmahals' is the only alternative to dissolve the problems that the residents are suffering from for years.
It is believed that the hidden plan behind the Trinamul's initiative is to woo the enclave residents prior to the next Assembly elections. It will be easier if the exchange of enclaves between India and Bangladesh commences before the election. If the residents of the Indian enclaves get their names included in the voters' list and recognised as Indian citizens they may consider the Trinamul Congress as the saviour and the votes may go in favour of that party.
President of Cooch Behar district unit of the Trinamul Congress Mr Rabindranath Ghosh said they already sent memorandums to the Union home minister Mr P Chidambaram requesting him to take initiative to exchange the enclaves of the two neighbouring countries. Mr Ghosh said there were 131 Indian enclaves in Bangladesh territory and 95 Bangladeshi enclaves in Indian territory. About 2.5-lakh people reside in the Indian enclaves. Many residents of Bangladeshi enclaves have illegally collected Indian ration cards and voter identity cards too. They enjoy different facilities from India very easily as they live encircled by Indian mainland. But the residents of Indian enclaves get no such facilities. It is hard for them to enter Indian mainland crossing the Bangladeshi land. For them there was no hospital, no school, no government facility and no security too. Bangladeshi miscreants steal their cattle regularly. Abduction of young women is a regular crime in these enclaves. Parents of young daughters can never sleep quietly in the night.
In 1992, at the time of handing over of Tinbigha corridor to Bangladesh it was announced that the 'chhitmahals' of the two countries would be exchanged by two years but it is still to be implemented, Mr Ghosh alleged. The Union home minister should come forward to translate that promise into reality, he demanded.
It is learnt that a large group of people from different Indian enclaves may join the Martyrs Day celebration of the Trinamul Congress at Kolkata in this month. They may meet the Trinamul Congress supremo cum Union railway minister Miss Mamata Banerjee there to tell her their miseries. If they can convince her and Miss Banerjee takes up the issue to the Centre she has every possibility to turn into the saviour of the stateless peoples. And it may surely turn into a vote puller instrument in Cooch Behar district, local Trinamul leaders believe.
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