Assam erupts in protest over LBA with Bangladesh, Bandh on Thursday

Local bodies across the Indian State of Assam have begun holding protest demonstrations over the India-Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) unanimously passed on Wednesday in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Indian parliament.

Assam Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 6 May 2015, 07:24 PM
Updated : 6 May 2015, 07:24 PM

The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), All Assam Student Union (AASU) and several other local organisations on Wednesday burnt effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi in different places in Guwahati to register their opposition to the deal.
 
The state’s regional political party, AGP, while accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress of playing with the emotions of the people of Assam, declared a 10-hour Assam bandh from 6am Thursday as a protest against the state’s re-inclusion in the deal.
 
AGP General Secretary Durga Das Bodo in a press conference organised on Wednesday said the Congress and BJP, by making the land agreement with Bangladesh, has not only succumbed to the demands of the neighbouring country, but have also betrayed the people of Assam.
 
AGP has, since the beginning, been protesting the deal, declaring that they will not allow even an inch of Assam's land to be handed over to Bangladesh.
 
Bodo said that when the Congress was at the Centre, it signed the land deal with Bangladesh and the BJP, after forming Government, has been changing its stand ever since.
 
While Narendra Modi had earlier supported the land swap deal with Assam, he had later agreed to exclude the state from the deal after massive protests broke out against the planned handing over Assam's land to Bangladesh in the LBA.
 
However, following the cabinet decision, it was again revised to include Assam in the land deal with Bangladesh.
 
Meanwhile, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Wednesday thanked Prime Minister Modi for re-inclusion of Assam in the protocol signed between India and Bangladesh.
 
In a letter, Gogoi told Modi that it would not only serve national and state interests but also help in finding a permanent solution to the long standing India-Bangladesh border disputes in the Assam.
 
According to the Chief Minister, it would also facilitate the erection of fences in undemarcated areas and help prevent illegal infiltration of foreigners, subversive elements and smuggling by sealing the porous border.
 
The Assam government, however, made it clear that the LBA would, once and for all, settle the boundary dispute with Bangladesh permanently and Assam getting get an area of 714 acres in Dhubri and Karimganj sectors.
 
There are 982 acres of disputed land along the Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam.
 
Assam will part with 268.40 acres of land, including 193.85 acres in Kalabari area in Dhubri and 74.55 acres in Pallathal area in Karimganj as it would go to Bangladesh.