11 held for protesting against land port project at India-Bhutan border

Why in news?

A land port is being built by the Land Ports Authority of India (LPAI) at Gotabari, Torsa Tea Garden, near the Jaigaon–Phuentsholing border crossing. Eleven Adivasi residents of Torsa Tea Garden, Alipurduar, were arrested for protesting the same project at the India-Bhutan border.

UPSC Relevance

Prelims – Land Ports Authority of India, Integrated Check Posts, India-Bhutan border.

Mains  

GS2, India and its neighbourhood relations

GS3, Infrastructure; Land reforms; Security challenges and their management in border areas

India-Bhutan border 

• Length – About 699 km.

• Nature – Open border; citizens of both countries can cross without a visa.
• Guarding force – Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), which also guards the India-Nepal border.
• Treaty – Treaty of Friendship, 1949, revised in 2007.
• Main trade points – Jaigaon (West Bengal)–Phuentsholing; Darranga (Assam)–Samdrup Jongkhar; Gelephu (opposite Assam), where Bhutan is developing the Gelephu Mindfulness City.
• Trade – India is Bhutan’s largest trading partner. Bhutan is a landlocked country, so most of its trade passes through India.

Land Ports Authority of India (LPAI)

• Status – Statutory body set up under the Land Ports Authority of India Act, 2010.
• Ministry – Ministry of Home Affairs (Department of Border Management).
• Operational since – March 2012.
• Role – Builds, upgrades and manages Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) on India’s land borders for smooth movement of goods and people.
• What is an ICP? – A single facility that brings customs, immigration, border security, quarantine and other agencies under one roof, with warehouses, parking, scanners and passenger terminals.
• Need – Old land customs stations were congested and slow, raising trade costs. ICPs support the Act East and Neighbourhood First policies.

Major ICPs

Tea garden workers and land rights

• History – Adivasi communities such as Oraon, Munda and Santhal were brought from the Chotanagpur region by colonial planters to work in Assam and Bengal tea gardens.
• Land status – Tea garden land in West Bengal is government land leased to companies. Workers live in ‘labour lines’ and cultivate small plots, often for generations, but have no ownership titles (patta).
• No Fifth Schedule protection – West Bengal has no notified Scheduled Areas, so PESA and Gram Sabha consent rules do not apply here.

Way forward

• Recognise customary cultivation – Survey and record long-term occupation so that such families qualify for compensation and R&R.
• Dialogue over force – Engage the community and unions before starting construction.
• Land titles for tea workers – Grant homestead rights to tea workers on land they have lived on for generations.
• Transparent SIA – Make Social Impact Assessment reports public and hold public hearings.

Border infrastructure makes India stronger only when border communities see themselves as partners in it, not as its victims.

Practice MCQ

Q1. Consider the following statements:

1. The Land Ports Authority of India is a statutory body under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
2. Petrapole Integrated Check Post is on the India-Bangladesh border.
3. The India-Bhutan border is guarded by the Border Security Force.

How many of the statements given above are correct?

(a) Only one

(b) Only two

(c) All three

(d) None

Answer: (b). Statement 3 is incorrect: the India-Bhutan border is guarded by the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).

Q2. Consider the following pairs:

How many of the pairs given above are correctly matched?

(a) Only one

(b) Only two

(c) All three

(d) None

Answer: (c). All three pairs are correct. The Torsa rises in Tibet’s Chumbi Valley, passes through Bhutan and West Bengal, and enters Bangladesh.

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