More haats along Bangladesh border

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Oct 26: “The governments of India and Bangladesh will come up with six new border haats in addition to the existing four along the Meghalaya-Rangpur/Sylhet and Tripura-Chittagong border in accordance with the revised Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two countries,”  Joint Secretary (South Asia/SAARC/SAFTA), Department of Commerce, Government of India, BS Bhalla said.

 Bhalla also said that the new renewable memorandum will come up with suggestions of increasing vendors from 25 to 50 at the border haats.

World Bank Operations Officer  Mohini Datt stressed the need observe as to how these haats shape up in future by drawing inspirations and lessons from instances of border markets across the world. He appreciated the social and economic benefits that accrue to local residents on both sides of the border after flagging off the daylong discussions on the matter.

“This initiative must be viewed in the larger context of Indo-Bangladesh relations and the bonds that the two countries have shared throughout their histories,” Member of Parliament from Bangladesh Shirin Akhter  said.

“While border haats have opened up an avenue for improving standards of living of people residing around the areas, they have also facilitated to some extent, women empowerment and people-to-people connectivity. Vendors, who were present at the meeting drew attention to infrastructural idequacies and other loopholes and anomalies in the rules and regulations that govern border haats,” CUTS associate Director and Policy Alyst Prithviraj th said.