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Trade with Myanmar resumes
September 6, 2007: (The Telegraph) Mounting pressure from the traders’ lobby yesterday forced the authorities in Mizoram to lift the ban on the entry of permitted goods from Myanmar.
Transaction was stalled for two weeks at Zokhuathar under Champai district on the Indo-Myanmar border. Fearing a rise in smuggling across the state’s 404-km-long border, superintendent of police, Champai, F. Lalhuliana, issued the order on August 20 banning trade for two months.
Buyers who purchase goods from Myanmar and South Asian countries also joined the protest, which left the authorities with no other alternative but to withdraw the controversial order.
The ban on entry of foreign goods not only hit traders in Mizoram but led to piling up of goods at godowns in Myanmar’s border areas. The border trade route, stretching from India to Kalay town in Sagaing division of Myanmar, was built by BRO engineers and the Myanmar army.
The trade centre at Zokhuathar has grown since 2003 when it started functioning following a treaty between the commerce ministries of India and Myanmar in 1994.
According to the trade and commerce
department of the Mizoram government, business of Rs 100 crore is transacted
here every year.
The Indo-Myanmar border in Mizoram is one of the favourite corridors for the entry of narcotics like heroin and amphetamines into India. Apart from drugs, illegal arms from Chin and Kachin rebels are also smuggled across this border.