Centre pulls up West Bengal for suspending trade on Indo-Bangla border

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The Centre has just as before pulled up the West Bengal government - this time around for violating the Centre’s order on cross-border movement of goods between India and Bangladesh.

In a letter, addressed to West Bengal’s chief secretary, Rajiva Sinha, union home secretary Ajay Bhalla said, “This act of the state government of West Bengal, amounts to violation of the orders issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs beneath the Disaster Management Act, 2005 in addition to Articles 253, 256 and 257 of the Constitution of India”.

While India has trade ties with Bangladesh, which has no restrictions on import and export of goods, the West Bengal government has closed its porous borders using its eastern neighbour in a move to support the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

“There is some commotion in Petrapole.

There are a few issues and we will address them”, West Bengal’s home secretary, Alapan Bandyopadhyay said.

Since the start of lockdown in March, the Petrapole checkpost in the Bongaon area of North 24 Parganas district, 83 km from Kolkata; had reopened on April 30. However, protests erupted in the region on the presumption that Bangladeshi labourers were carrying the virus which would affect Indian drivers and helpers and businesses closed down on a single day.

In the letter, Bhalla said that closing this border could have larger international repercussions for India regarding its “legally binding international commitments”.

Appealing to open the border for trade immediately, Bhalla has asked West Bengal to send a compliance report.

In an earlier communication last month, Bhalla said that West Bengal had closed its international borders with Nepal in addition to Bhutan unilaterally, affecting India’s international interests.

While movement of goods to Nepal and Bhutan as eased, the same is not the case with Bangladesh. India has friendly relations with these three countries.

It's estimated that over 2100 trucks, carrying essential supplies towards Bangladesh are organized at the Petrapole border in West Bengal since March and drivers time for India from Bangladesh are also denied entry by the West Bengal government.

The state’s chief minister, Mamata Banerjee has previously elucidated on the strategic position of West Bengal and explained that borders needed to be closed to contain Covid-19 spread in the state.
Source: https://www.business-standard.com

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