As per the land boundary agreement, India and Bangladesh will swap 162 enclaves
At midnight on Friday, when India and Bangladesh officially swap land, the District Magistrate of Cooch Behar in West Bengal, P Ulaganathan, will experience what a civil servant might have experienced at Independence.
According to the India-Bangladesh land boundary agreement, signed 41 years after it was endorsed, the two countries will swap 162 enclaves, whose 50,000-odd inhabitants have been deprived not only of nationality, but also public services. India will gain access to 55 Bangladesh enclaves that house 14,000 residents.
"These are people with no addresses. So getting them one, assigning a pin code is my first job," Mr Ulaganathan told NDTV.
His assignment for tonight has no precedence after Independence.
The residents of these enclaves on both sides were given the choice to stay. Mr Ulaganathan said much like the Bangladeshis who do not want to leave India, of the 37,000 Indians living in 111 enclaves there, only 980 are coming back.
"They have formed social bonds there, built houses, bought land. So they chose to stay back where they have been for the last 68 years," he said.
The 980 people who have chosen to return are the most deprived and have nothing there, so they stand to gain from coming back, the officer said.
"All through this month, we are offering them an exploratory visit," said Mr Ulaganathan. "They can find relatives and rebuild their lives. If they are unable to, then we will allow them to move in with all our help in November."
But taking care of 900 people who return may be easier than ensuring support for the 14,000 Bangladeshis who will be Indians from tomorrow. Most have had no education as they couldn't access Bangladesh schools. Some are yet to experience the magic of electricity.
No wonder that they will celebrate their official status as Indians by lighting 68 candles in their homes - one for every year that they have lived here.