Gogoi defends land swap deal
Source: Hueiyen News Service / Newmai News Network
Guwahati, October 17 2011:
Chief minister of Assam Tarun Gogoi on Monday defended the land swap deal with Bangladesh, maintaining it would end perennial problems such as boundary demarcation, land in adverse possession by either country and enclaves.
"Assam stands to get back 1200 acres of disputed land in exchange of 193 acres claimed by Dhaka," Gogoi said while silencing opposition parties in a special one-day session of the legislative assembly.
The session was scheduled following a string of protests and shutdowns by various political parties and NGOs that had panned the land swap as a sellout to Bangladesh.
It is worth noting that All Assam Students Union (AASU) had agitated against the Indo � Bangla land swap deal last month.
Several groups have been agitating in different forms of agitations in the last several days now in Assam.
Expressions of resentment against the Indo- Bangladesh land swap deal got momentum in Assam last month as Tarun Gogoi government draws flak from all sections of the society for alleged surrendering of Assam's land to Bangladesh.
The anger of all the organisations , however, was directed more at New Delhi than Dhaka.
Also last month, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the BJP's Bharatiya Janata Yuva Manch (BJYM) went hammer and tongs at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for proposing a land swap deal with Bangladesh.
Mentionably, India and Bangladesh share a 4065km border, the stretch with Assam being 272km. Bangladesh is in adverse possession of 665 acres of Assam's land � 160 acres in Dhubri district in the west and 505 acres in Karimganj district in the south.