Dhaka got one-third of land it claimed

The fine print of the India-Bangladesh boundary settlement shows that Dhaka has got one-third of its claim on land in adversely possessed territories.

The fine print of the India-Bangladesh boundary settlement shows that Dhaka has got one-third of its claim on land in adversely possessed territories.

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The total area under adverse possession claimed by Bangladesh was 793 acres, while the protocol to the agreement, signed by Indian foreign minister SM Krishna and his Bangladesh counterpart Dipu Moni on September 6 during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Dhaka, fixed it at 267.5 acre.

When it came to the marking of the un-demarcated boundary of 6.5 km in the 4,096-km-long border, India got 714 acre of land against Bangladesh’s 90 acre.

The protocol paved the way for the settlement of the long pending land boundary issues between the two countries. The protocol to the Indira-Mujib border pact of 1974 earlier settled the issue of 162 enclaves on each other’s side.
But since these are issues of claimed territories and un-demarcated boundary, there is no real gain or loss for either country, officials who dealt with the issue told HT.

“The claim on adversely possessed territory by Bangladesh came down after the joint survey.”
Sources familiar with the development said there have been some technical issues that came in the way of signing the protocol. For the Indian side, it was the external affairs ministry that was the nodal ministry for dealing with the boundary issues, while for Bangladesh, it was the home ministry.

Dhaka was looking at the two home ministers signing the pact. But at the end, the two foreign ministers signed it.