India will ratify LBA, Hasina hopes

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has expressed the hope that India will take quick step to ratify the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) with Bangladesh. Addressing the senior officials of the land ministry at the Secretariat in Dhaka on Thursday, the Prime Minister said a bill on the land boundary agreement now remains in the Indian parliament. ‘I hope that India would ratify the agreement to resolve a long standing problem on land boundary issue,’ she said. The border line between the two countries has been drawn and mapping of the zones have already been completed, she said, adding ‘Now the process awaits Indian parliament’s approval to resolve the problem forever.’ Sheikh Hasina said, ‘The agreement under Mujib-Indira Pact would have been signed long ago, but no government after 1975 took any initiative in this regard, despite Bangladesh ratified it long ago.’ She said Awami League government after taking office in 1996 took initiative for demarcation of the Indo-Bangla border. ‘At that time most of lands across Indian border except 6-and-half-kilometre area were demarcated,’ she added, according to BSS.