India is bearing the brunt of the political turmoil in Bangladesh as persisting unrest in its eastern neighbour has forced trade between two countries to a new low.
According to a report by India’s private news agency IANS, the country’s north-eastern states have been worst hit.
India’s trade with Bangladesh was first struck by it sliding rupee against the US dollar and then by a surge of violence in its otherwise resourceful neighbour.
The trade volume was Rs 3.43 billion last year (2012-13) and Rs 3.31 billion in the year before that (2011-12) at the three Land Customs Stations (LCS) along the India-Bangladesh border with Tripura, IANS said, quoting a senior official of the Tripura Industries and Commerce Department.
“Through the Akhaurah checkpost, trade worth Rs2.45 billion was done during the last fiscal; it was only Rs 0.7516 billion during the first seven months of the current financial year. The trade volume would not exceed Rs 1 billion during the entire current fiscal through the Akhaurha checkpost,” the official told IANS.
He added that the trade through the other two checkpoints at Raghna and Delonia was just about Rs 0.98 billion.
The Akhaurha checkpoint is the biggest international land trading port in northeastern India and the second-largest along the Bangladesh border after Petrapole-Banapole in West Bengal.
An average of 200 to 230 Bangladeshi trucks used to enter Tripura daily through this crossing, the report said.
The Akhaurha land port, 150 km east of Dhaka and just one km west of the heart of Tripura capital Agartala, is one of Bangladesh’s biggest trade routes with northeastern India.
The senior official said trade between the northeastern Indian states and Bangladesh had virtually stopped during the past several days because of the violent agitation in that country.
“There is no sign of improvement in the situation in the near future,” the private new agency said, quoting Tripura Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Makhan Lal Debnath.
Many of the 32 land-port customs stations along the 4,095-km India-Bangladesh border with West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura do not function regularly, according to reports available with the Tripura Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
“The twin crises (decline of the Indian rupee against the US dollar and the political turmoil in Bangladesh), besides affecting trade, are also having an impact on the morale of traders,” the IANS also said, quoting Debnath.
Bangladesh exports clothes, leather, food, confectionery, stone chips, cement and construction material, jewellery, processed food and fish.
Tripura, Meghalaya and Assam export fertiliser, precious stones, fruit, spare parts and forest produce, among others, to Bangladesh.
The IANS quoted Indian traders as saying that successive strikes, agitations and violent protests in Bangladesh and the adverse security situation, coupled with depreciation of the Indian rupee against the dollar, have affected trade at all land custom stations in Tripura, Assam and Meghalaya.
It also said, quoting importer Babul Roy: “With a fall in trade, the northeastern states are facing a shortage of fish and commodities like stone chips, cement and electronic goods.”
Bangladeshi truck drivers are unwilling to ply their vehicles in the troubled situation.
“When we ply our trucks, the agitators attack us on the roads and damage our vehicles and goods,” the IANS added, quoting Matiur Rahman, a truck driver from Brahmanbaria, in eastern Bangladesh.
“Over 700 workers are involved in the trading activities at the Akhaurha and other checkposts in Tripura. The majority of them, besides drivers and their assistants, have become unemployed,” Habul Biswas, General Secretary of the Agartala Exporters-Importers Association, told IANS.
The situation in Bangladesh has also led to the suspension of the Dhaka-Agartala bus service.
“The bus service would be resumed after the situation in Bangladesh returns to normal,” the Indian private news agency further said, quoting Rabindra Reang, managing director of Tripura Road Transport Corporation, the service operator.
After the election commission set Jan 5, 2014, for Bangladesh’s 10th parliamentary elections, major opposition parties have intensified violent agitations across the country, leaving at least 20 people dead.
The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led 18-party alliance, with the Jamaat-e-Islami being a major partner, has been carrying on a violent agitation over the past few months demanding the formation of a neutral caretaker government to supervise the polls.
Railway coaches, vehicles and private and government assets have been damaged by the protestors.
Source: bdnews24
