AIZAWL: Improvement of infrastructure, including road communication, is being carried out with utmost priority to accelerate India-Bangladesh trade through the northeastern states, said a Mizoram official Friday after talks between the chief minister and a Bangladesh minister.
The official told reporters that Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tract (CHT) affairs Minister Dipankar Talukdar, accompanied by senior officials, held a meeting here with Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla late Thursday evening and discussed the prospects of trade through the northeastern states.He said both the Mizoram chief minister and the Bangladesh minister informed each other about the ongoing works on the both sides of the border to improve the basic infrastructure including roads.
“Bangladesh government was keen to start border trade with all the northeastern states bordering that country. A number of border trade points between Tripura and Bangladesh have been operational,” the official quoted the visiting minister as saying.
The visiting minister expressing his deep appreciation of the “inspiring” initiative rendered by Lal Thanhawla to usher in peace and tranquility in Mizoram, said that Bangladesh also wrote its own peace accord and the country is now reaping the benefits of peace by working towards all-round development.
The chief minister informed the Bangladesh minister that the minority tribes in Mizoram-Chakma, Lai and Mara-each have their own autonomous district councils, where they even enjoy direct funding from the central government.
Also present at the meeting, Mizoram Trade and Commerce Minister Lalrinliana Sailo pointed out that the state’s farmers were exporting a lot of local fruits to Bangladesh through Tripura, but the Bangladesh government has been imposing of Rs.4 as tax per fruit at the border causing problem for them.
Sailo requested the Bangladesh minister to look into the matter.Mountainous Mizoram shares a 404 km border with Myanmar and 318 km with Bangladesh. (IANS)