India's Lok Sabha has passed a constitutional amendment bill to operationalise the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) with Bangladesh, and the exchange of certain enclaves of land between the two countries.
The Constitution (One Hundred and Nineteenth Amendment) Bill, 2013 was unanimously passed by the lower house, with 331 votes in favour and zero against it.
Speaker of Lok Sabha Sumitra Mahajan made the announcement around 6:44pm (Bangladesh Time) on Thursday. The full session was telecasted live on Lok Sabha TV.
Earlier in the day, Indian Minister for External Affairs Shrimati Sushma Swaraj placed the Constitution (119th Amendment) Bill, 2013 on Thursday afternoon.
“The bill to be moved further to amend the Constitution of India to give effect to the acquiring of territories by India and transfer of certain territories to Bangladesh in pursuance of the agreement and its protocol entered into between the Governments of India and Bangladesh, as passed by Rajya Sabha, be taken into consideration.”
“Also to move that the Bill be passed,” read the business list of Lok Sabha.
On Wednesday, the bill was unanimously passed by the upper house, with 180 votes in favour and zero against it.
The LBA Bill is aimed at redrawing the international boundary between India and Bangladesh by exchanging areas of adverse possession and enclaves along with population on either side, thus making the highly incongruous and porous Indo-Bangla border more manageable.
Once the Indo-Bangladesh border gets redrawn, India will transfer 111 enclaves measuring 17,160.63 acres to Bangladesh and receive 51 enclaves measuring 7,110.2 acres.
The bill would also require a nod by legislatures of West Bengal, Meghalaya, Tripura and Assam.
