Rajnath assures of solution to Chitmahal issue

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday assured early solution to the Chitmahal issue along Indo-Bangladesh border in North Bengal. As he inspected the Teen Bigha corridor in Cooch Behar district Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee frowned at the timing of his visit, which she said had political purpose behind it. Singh, who was being accompanied by Darjeeling MP SS Ahluwalia, became the first Indian Minister to visit  Chitmahal. He is on a two-day visit of Bengal during the course of which he would visit the BSF outposts on the Indo-Bangladesh border. He is likely to visit the floating border outposts near Sunderbans.

“The enclave issues should be solved on humanitarian grounds,” Singh said adding the Centre would soon take up measures to address the issue. The Minister earlier met the locals at Teen Bigha corridor. There has been a big demand to settle the Chitmahal (enclave) issue in the area. Currently, India have 51 enclaves inside Bangladesh whereas that country have 111 such Chitmahal in this part of the border. The locals have been demanding the merger of the enclaves with the respective countries ending not only the border porosity but also allowing the people living in these enclaves a distinct political and national identity.

With the scattered Chitmahals being a sensitive political issue for the political parties in Cooch Behar the region had witnessed the famous Teen Bigha movement in the 1980s led by then local Forward Bloc leader and Bengal Minister Kamal Guha. Kicking off a storm over Singh’s visit to the area, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday attacked the BJP for “trying to politicise an issue that is of national importance.”  Asking questions as to “whether it is a political visit” she said “the Home Minister is visiting Cooch Behar along with the BJP MPs making it difficult for the people to understand whether it is a political or ministerial visit.”

Accusing the Home Minister’s office for “not following the protocol” she said that though the custom was that “in such cases the State Government is consulted prior to such visits” she only “received a fax detailing his visit.” In a federal structure both the Centre and the State “should respect each other.” Curiously, Banerjee who was also in North Bengal barely a distance of a few miles from where Singh was visiting she avoided meeting the Union Minister.