Offering of transit: Loss will be greater than gain The national security as well as environment and health issues should be considered thoroughly before finalising any deal on transit, Economists, academics and experts at a seminar said that transit facility to India should be under multilateral framework rather than bilateral. Bangladesh may get several thousand crores of taka through transit but the cost of environment and infrastructure would be many times higher than that of it. But economic benefit merely could not guarantee on the country's security as well as environment they added. The outstanding issues between Bangladesh and India could be resolved through a package deal instead of giving transit unilaterally to the big neighbour of the South Asia, they maintained. They also said India should allow Bangladesh to use its Shiliguri corridor again for transporting its goods to Nepal and Bhutan and also vice versa to Bangladesh. They were speaking at a seminar on 'Allowing Transit Facility to India' organised by Islamic Economics Research Bureau (IERB) at its Purana-Paltan office on Saturday in the capital. Shah Abdul Hannan, former secretary and chairman of IERB chaired the seminar while Dr MA Rab, vice chancellor of Manarat International University was present as chief guest. Prof AY Bhuiyan, senior research fellow of the organisation presented the keynote paper. The speakers said sovereignty and existence of the country very much lie with the matter of transit and using present routes of the Asian Highway between Bangladesh and India shall tantamount to giving transit to India. The national security as well as environment and health issues should be considered thoroughly before finalising any deal on transit, they added. Prof AY Bhuiyan said SAFTA treaty 2004 provides for transit facilities in rail, water, air and road by all SAARC countries. He suggested carrying out detailed studies on the profit and loss of transit and stresses on to 'check carry illegal goods and arms'. Prof M Mujahidul Islam, Prof Abu Ahmed, Muhammad Ruhul Amin, associate professor of Dhaka University, members of IERB Dr Md Mizanur Rahman, and engineer SM Fazle Ali, Mahbubul Huq, executive director, Centre for National Culture, Dr SM Ali Akkas, Sirajul Islam, former district judge and AMM Zeaul Huq, among others, took part in the discussion. |
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