Sumi Khan

Dhaka, Jul 6 (IANS): The state government of West Bengal has finally allowed goods from Bangladesh through the Benapole Land Port in Jashore in Bangladesh, days after Bangladeshi exporters blocked imports from across the border.

Export and import activities through the Benapole-Petrapole land port resumed on Sunday evening, after a three-day disruption in the wake of a strike enforced by Bangladeshi traders.

The trading organisations at the Benapole land port in Bangladesh on July 1 stopped the import of Indian goods protesting against the refusal of Bangladeshi export items on the Indian side, which led to a complete standstill there.

Later, the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh, the Indian High Commission of Dhaka, and the customs officials of Benapole came to a reconciliation through a fruitful meeting on Sunday noon. As a result, five trucks carrying Indian goods entered the country while five Bangladeshi trucks with export items entered India in the evening.

The Foreign Minister of Bangladesh, A.K. Abdul Momen, said that after a long conversation with the state government of West Bengal, the Indo-Bangla trade through the Benapole-Petrapole land port resumed again.

In a video brief, Momen said, "We, the governments of India and Bangladesh, decided together that we would continue our trade. But suddenly our trade was stopped due to the ban imposed by the West Bengal government."

He added, "Since March 23, no truck carrying goods from our country has been allowed to enter Bangladesh through the Petrapole-Benapole land port. Whereas, Bangladeshi products are going to Tripura and other places of India as usual."

"Only the West Bengal government said that due to the lockdown, they will not let any truck go to Bangladesh," he mentioned.

Momen said that primarily the government of West Bengal has ordered that if any Indian truck entered Bangladesh, the driver would not be allowed to enter the border, and only products will be allowed to cross the border. It was decided that the drivers will not enter Bangladesh, they will just unload their goods.

Followed this system, it was seen that the goods had to be unloaded over and again, which proved to be quite expensive. Secondly, not more than 4/5 trucks could be unloaded in a day. For this reason, this programme was dropped, Momen said.

After a long discussion, it was decided to take the goods by rail.