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'Border Haats' in Tripura along India-B'desh border to reopen after 3 yrs
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IANS | 03 May, 2023
After three years of closure, one of the two 'Border Haats' (markets) in
Tripura along India-Bangladesh border will resume trading from May 9,
officials said on Wednesday.
A top official of the
Tripura Industries and Commerce Department said that after a recent
meeting between the district officials of Feni (Bangladesh) and South
Tripura, it was decided to resume the business of the Purba Madhugram
(Bangladesh)-Srinagar (South Tripura) 'Border Haats' from May 9.
"Efforts
were on to restart the Kasba (Bangladesh)-Kamlasagar (Tripura) Border
Haat in Sepahijala district," the official told IANS.
The four
Border Haats, two each in Tripura and Meghalaya, have remained closed
since March 2020 after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and the
consequent lockdowns, causing immense loss to the people living in the
bordering villages.
Both the Tripura and Meghalaya governments
have been pressing the Centre to take up the matter with the Bangladesh
government to resume the Border Haats.
The two Border Haats in
Meghalaya -- at Balat (East Khasi Hills district) and Kalaichar (South
West Garo Hills district) -- were reopened last year and both are
functional once a week now.
Union Minister of State for Commerce
and Industry, Anupriya Patel, recently in a letter to former Tripura
Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, currently a Rajya Sabha member, said
that the Central government has raised the issue of reopening the two
'Border Haats' in Tripura to promote local business and livelihood of
the people living on either side of the frontiers with its Bangladesh
counterpart.
"We are continuously raising the matter of the
reopening of Border Haats at Kamalasagar and Srinagar in the bilateral
meetings with Bangladesh. We are hopeful of an early resolution of this
matter," Patel had said in her letter to Deb.
Officials of the
Tripura Industries and Commerce Department said that the officials in
Sepahijala and South Tripura district administrations had on a number of
occasions approached their Bangladesh counterparts to reopen the Border
Haats as the Covid-19 induced situation has almost been tamed now.
Jaipur-based
think-tank CUTS International, which has done several studies on border
trade, had also recommended to the Indian government to resume these
border markets the necessary precautions against Covid-19, as these
markets boost the economy, cement ties between the people of the two
countries and also check illegal trade.
These markets, spread in
around 5,625 sq. metre area of the two countries' territories or
"no-man's land", operate once a week on a fixed day.
In the weekly market, on an average, at least 25 vendors, including women from both sides of the border, sell their products.
According
to the officials, 10 more "Border Haats" were approved along the
India-Bangladesh border at Tripura and Meghalaya. Out of them, six are
in Meghalaya, and four in Tripura.
Both Indian and Bangladeshi
governments are keen to reopen more "Border Haats" in the four
northeastern states -- Tripura, Meghalaya, Assam and Mizoram, which
share 1,880-km border with Bangladesh.
(Sujit Chakraborty can be contacted at sujit.c@ians.in)
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