AGARTALA, July 23 (TIWN): To put into operation the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) ratified in the last Parliament session, Tripura secretary for Revenue Puneet Agarwal on Thursday left for Dhaka. Agarwal along with the secretariat level officers of the northeastern states attend the India-Bangladesh joint meeting. The Joint Boundary Working Group ( JBWG) of India and Bangladesh is scheduled to meet on Thursday in Dhaka to implement the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) ratified in the last Parliament session, top official informed. The meeting will be attended by delegates from India, Bangladesh and Myanmar which aims to decide on marking the border after enclaves are exchanged under the land deal. Tripura will be represented by state revenue secretary Punit Agarwal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had signed the agreement with his Bangladesh counterpart on June 6 at Dhaka with the door finally opened for over 50,000 virtually stateless people to finally get a national identity. As per the agreement, the disputed Chandan Nagar village under the Dhalai district of Tripura would join with the Indian Territory whereas Muhri Char of Belonia under South District of Tripura would merge with the Bangladesh territory.There are 51 families with a little over 300 people living in Chandan Nagar village (Dhalai). They are allowed to cultivate on the other side of the fencing near the Dhalai river, but most of the times, Bangladeshi villagers take away their crops.

The land swap protocol envisages transfer of 111 enclaves with a total area of 17,160.63 acres to Bangladesh, while the neighbouring country will transfer 51 enclaves with an area of 7,110.02 acres to India. Assam, West Bengal, Tripura and Meghalaya all fall under the bill.

Tripura government had produced all papers related to Chandannagar and Bangladesh have left Chandananagar for Tripura because the families residing there are Indians and used to do cultivation but in case of Muharichar they are raising various questions, said official.

Revenue Minister Badal Chowdhury suggested that most part of the disputed char land at Muhuripur would go to Bangladesh side and the enclave at Chandannagar would come to Indian side but there would not be any eviction.

However, the agreement aims at the acquiring of territories by India and the transfer of territories to Bangladesh through retaining of adverse possession in pursuance of the 1974 agreement between the two nations.

Besides, the meeting at Dhaka on Thursday is also expected to take up other issues related to the fencing problem along with the international bordering areas and incidents related to crimes and smugglings.