Parliament passes Indo-Bangla Land Boundary Bill, PM thanks Sonia

New Delhi: The Parliament on Thursday passed the constitutional amendment bill regarding the land boundary agreement with Bangladesh, following which Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally thanked Congress president Sonia Gandhi for Opposition’s support over the legislation.

The Prime Minister expressed his gratitude towards the Opposition and went to thank Sonia Gandhi personally after the passage of the Bill in Lok Sabha.

PM Modi also tweeted that alongwith Sonia, he thanked Congress’ Mallikarjun Kharge, CPIM’s Sitaram Yechury, BSP supremo Mayawati, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, BJD chief Naveen Patnaik and JDU leader Sharad Yadav.

The Prime Minister also conveyed his gratitude to NDA allies for their support to the India-Bangladesh Land Boundary Bill.

I want to convey my gratitude to our NDA allies for the support & co-operation that led to passage of India-Bangladesh Land Boundary Bill.

The PM also took to Twitter to thank the Opposition, wrote: “My thanks to all the political parties for their cooperation, as also to the states of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura & West Bengal.”

My thanks to all the political parties for their cooperation, as also to the states of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura & West Bengal.

I thanked these leaders for their support in the historic passage of the Bill that will mark a fresh chapter in our ties with Bangladesh.

He also spoke to chief ministers of bordering states — West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee, Assam’s Tarun Gogoi, Tripura’s Manik Sarkar, Meghalaya’s Mukul Sangma and Mizoram’s Lalthanhawla — to thank them for support to the Land Boundary Bill that provides for exchange of territories with Bangladesh.

The bill had been unanimously passed by the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday and on Thursday it received Lok Sabha`s unanimous nod.

Earlier in the day, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had moved the Constitution (One Hundred and Nineteenth Amendment) Bill, 2013, for passage of the bill and said it had been passed unanimously by the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

The bill, which entails exchange of enclaves between the two countries, seeks to amend the First Schedule of the Constitution to give effect to an agreement entered into by India and Bangladesh on acquiring and transfer of territories between the two countries on May 16, 1974.

Sushma Swaraj said that while the Bangladesh parliament had ratified the 1974 land boundary accord between two countries, the Indian parliament had not done so as demarcation had not been completed on the ground.

She said then prime minister Manmohan Singh signed the protocol for transfer of territories during his visit to Bangladesh in 2011.

Sushma Swaraj said as foreign minister she chose Bangladesh as the country for her visit abroad, and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had urged her to move forward with the agreement.

She said Prime Minister Narendra Modi told her to work towards removing hurdles in the implementation of the agreement.

Sushma Swaraj said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wanted a package from the central government and it had been agreed upon.

The minister said she had moved the cabinet to keep Assam out of the implementation of agreement but the Congress was willing to support the bill only if the state was included.

Sushma Swaraj said she again moved the cabinet and the bill with the inclusion of Assam was brought to parliament.

The bill to operationalise the agreement with Bangladesh includes exchange of territories in Assam, West Bengal, Tripura and Meghalaya, and was cleared by the union cabinet at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Modi on Tuesday.

The First Schedule defines the area of each state and union territory which together constitute India.

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Source:Zeenews