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The ONLY thing missing now is a FTA between the two countries.
The boundary deal is a great achievement leading up to Independence day in India on the 15th of August.
The relationship between India and Bangladesh has moved beyond mere eloquent speeches and diplomatic gestures.
India is funding INFRASTRUCTURE in Bangladesh, including a bridge on the Meghna river near where I was born.
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Bangladesh, India exchange land in historic deal
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AFP and Times of India. Bangladesh
and India prepared on Friday to swap tiny areas of land, ending one of
the world's most intractable border disputes that has kept thousands of
people in stateless limbo for nearly 70 years.
Officials of two
nations will hoist their respective national flags in 162 enclaves -
111 in Bangladesh and 51 in India - at one minute past midnight (1801
GMT Friday) to assume sovereignty over the territories following a
historic border pact in June.
READ ALSO: India, Bangladesh to notify border settlement today
Following the flag hoisting, the enclaves - pockets of one country's
territory surrounded by the other - will cease to exist and more than
50,000 people who have been living there can now access citizenship
benefits such as schools, power and healthcare that they have lacked
since 1947.
In the final hours before the handover, villagers have been holding feasts and rehearsing their new national anthems.
Plans for more lavish festivities have been scaled back as India is
currently observing a period of national mourning for former President
APJ Kalam, who died earlier this week.
But there will be a
ceremony on the stroke of midnight to light 68 candles to mark the years
of stateless limbo since the end of British colonial rule of the whole
of the sub-continent.
"This is the biggest celebration of my
life. I can't describe how I feel today," said Parul Khatun, 35, a
resident of the Indian enclave of Kot Bajni.
"I'll be a
Bangladeshi citizen who can enjoy all the benefits," she said, recalling
how she was kicked out of a Bangladeshi hospital when she was about to
give birth as she lacked a national identification card.
The enclaves date back to ownership arrangements made centuries ago between local princes.
The parcels of land survived partition of the subcontinent in 1947
after British rule and Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence with
Pakistan.
Bangladesh endorsed a deal with India in 1974 in a
bid to dissolve the pockets, but India only signed a final agreement in
June when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Dhaka.
Officials of both nations this month conducted surveys, asking residents to choose a country.
The overwhelming majority of people living in Indian enclaves in Bangladesh opted for Bangladeshi citizenship.
But nearly 1,000 people on the Bangladesh side opted to keep their
Indian nationalities, meaning they will leave their homes by November
for India where they will be resettled by the state of West Bengal.
In India, all of the Bangladeshis living in the 51 Bangladesh enclaves decided to switch nationalities.