SHILLONG, May 7– The Meghalaya Mine Owners and Exporters Association has lodged a formal complaint with the Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani and the Director General of the Border Security Force (BSF), Ajai Raj Sharma against the force which has ‘forcefully’ stopped plying of coal-laden trucks on a public road along the international border with Bangladesh since April 28 last. The letter of complaint to the Deputy Prime Minister states that though the DIG of BSF’s Shillong Sector was officially informed on the matter, there has been no ‘positive response’, resulting in huge financial loss to the exporters. This has also led to ‘huge difficulty’ to the daily wage labourers engaged with coal export, the letter said.
The average loss of foreign exchange due to the ‘forceful closure’ of the road to coal-laden trucks is between $ US 52,000 to 55,000 every day. Moreover, large consignments of limestone also could not be exported to Bangladesh through the land port, the letter of complaint revealed.
It may be mentioned here that on an average, 250 trucks ferry coal to Bangladesh through the Borsora Land Customs Station every day. Officials of the BSF’s 17th battalion closed the export route on April 28 last as the exporters could not comply with the former’s ‘diktat’ to repair a stretch of 1200 yards of a road close to the Indo-Bangla border. The Company Commandant of E Company of t he battalion on March 10 last, in a letter (number E/17 Bn/BSF/IBB/04/126) to the president of the Export Association, Borsora had said, “…the road will not be allowed for movement of heavy loaded civil vehicles” if the road was not repaired and maintained by the exporters.
However, in addition to the financial constraints of the Exporters Association, they were also not authorised to repair or maintain the border road as it belonged to the State Public Works Department (PWD). The Sub-divisional officer of PWD (Roads), Nonghyllam, also wrote to the BSF that the road belonged to the State of Meghaaya and is maintained by the PWD.
Nevertheless, the BSF officials ‘forcefully’ stopped the plying of the coal-laden vehicles, allegedly without any official notification or intimation neither to the exporters not to the officials of the Customs Department posted at Borsora. The letter to the deputy prime minister pointed out the fact that while the Centre was all out to boost export from the north-eastern states by even promoting Special Economic Zones (SEZs), the ‘tyrannical act’ of the frontier force, should be dealt with an ‘iron fist’.