SAMDRUP JONGKHAR, Dec 20? Following the crackdown by the Royal Bhutan Army (RBA) on the insurgent camps in Bhutan, the business between the people of bordering villages in Nalbari district and Bhutan?s Samdrup Jongkhar district has been adversely affected as the daily and weekly markets of the areas have been closed since December 15 last.
Sources said here that the large Sunday weekly market of Bhutan?s Samdrup Jongkhar where the Bhutanese farmers sell their products like orange, potato etc., to Indian people has been cancelled due to the situation. ?As the Bhutan Royal Government sealed its gate and banned the movement of Bhutani people, our business has been affected adversely as most of our customers belong to Bhutan?, a shopkeeper of Darangamela Nagen Das told this correspondent while visiting the bordering areas today.
He said that people of the villages like Daranga, Parkizuli, Natunbasti, Bagazuli, Paharpur, Shuanzuli, Kalanadi who earn their livelihood by selling household products to Bhutanese have been hard hit due to the closure of daily markets. One Ramcharan Roy, a businessman of Kumarikata who runs a agro industry here said that the prices of vegetable items, rice, fish are alarmingly coming down here as the Bhutani buyers have stopped purchasing.
Similarly, orange and potato from Bhutan have become scarce in the market of entire north area. ?Two farmers Kalipad Mandal and Jatindra Mandal of Angarkata village who regularly go to Bhutan?s Samdrup Jongkhar market to purchase orange for business purposes said that they purchase orange at Rs 40 to Rs 60 for 80 numbers and sell it at Rs 150 to Rs 160 in Nalbari. However our business has been stopped following the crackdown in Bhutan?.