Mamata Banerjee furious as trade reopens with Bangladesh
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'Who will be responsible if this huge movement of transport and people driving them and loading and unloading of trucks add the spread of the virus'
Trade between India and Bangladesh resumed on Thursday through the Petrapole-Benapole corridor, but West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee appeared significantly less than happy.
“How do the Indian central government take a decision like this without consulting our state government,” Mamata said, reports The Eastern Link.
“Who'll be responsible if this huge movement of transport and persons driving them and loading and unloading of trucks add the spread of the virus! How come Delhi never discussing these problems with us Our state may be affected badly,” she said.
The Petrapole-Benapole corridor on West Bengal’s border with Bangladesh’s Jessore accounts for almost 60% of the $4-billion bilateral trade between India and Bangladesh. The land port has truly gone to sleep since both India and Bangladesh enforced nationwide lockdown to check the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to a report by RITES an engineering consultancy company, specializing in the field of transport infrastructure, the products traffic is approximately 400 trucks each day both ways, as the 2006 passenger traffic was about 1,159 persons each day (both incoming and outgoing).
The full total traffic in 2029-30 has been projected as 2,938 trucks per day and the passenger traffic at that time will be 3,924 people per day.
Because the flow of trucks from the Indian side is much more than the main one from Bangladesh to India, a huge row of trucks have already been stranded at Petrapole on the Indian side due to the sudden declaration of the lockdown by PM Narendra Modi on 24 March.
President of the Carrying & Forwarding (C&F) agents association at Petrapole, Kartick Chakrabarty, welcomed the Indian government’s decision to resume trade through this land port.
“Perishables are already rotting in the trucks. With a large number of trucks stranded and the drivers and assistants stuck, it is a horrible situation. How can one practice social distancing to check on Covid-19 virus if so many people are forced to stay in such a little corridor,” Kartick said.
Source: https://www.dhakatribune.com
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