BSS, New Delhi :
With the land boundary agreement (LBA) now complete, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi is beginning work on the Teesta water sharing agreement with Bangladesh.
On August 11-12, Modi and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee will meet in New Delhi to take stock of things after the land and population exchange as well as work out a checklist for Teesta, which is tougher given the implications for West Bengal farmers. The Times of India reported yesterday.
Reports said , Modi has stepped in before bureaucratic miserliness becomes a political problem with Mamata. Mamata has been invited to meet Modi on August 11-12 so the Centre and the state can work out a financial support package that covers the effects of both the LBA and Teesta agreement for Bengal.
This would include infrastructure, irrigation support, deal with arsenic in ground water, rehabilitation of displaced persons and new citizens. All 51 Bangladeshi enclaves which are now Indian territory are in the Cooch Behar district of West Bengal – after 68 years they have to be provided with facilities they had been denied all these years. West Bengal has been pitched by Modi as the launchpad for his ‘Act East’ policy. Mamata is crucial to the success of that policy.
Reports Said the execution of the LBA was one of the successes for the otherwise inefficient Indian state, when two nations worked as one: from demarcation of boundaries, to mapping out the exchange of people, joint polls to make sure everyone who was affected got a voice and a choice.
