India gets transit through Bangladesh without tariff
Road and Highways Department of Bangladesh and Oil and Natural Gas
Corporation of India last week signed a Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) allowing India to transport heavy power plant equipment through
Bangladesh territory to its north-eastern regions without paying any
tariff.
The MoU was signed at the ministry of shipping at the secretariat
in the evening last Tuesday.
Using Bangladesh territory is the only option for India that has long
been trying to establish big power plants in its landlocked and
insurgency-torn north-eastern regions.
'No scope for levy'
Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan who was present at the signing
ceremony told reporters that there was no scope for charging levy for
allowing over dimensional cargos (ODCs) of the state-owned energy
company of India.
The shipping minister pointed out that India has been paying fees
worth Tk 41.5 million to Bangladesh annually as per river protocol
signed in 1972 between the two countries.
Besides, he said, Tk 255 million as loan will be taken from Indian
side to construct about a 50-kilometre road between Ashuganj and
Akhaura within Bangladesh territory. Bangladesh will repay the loan
with some interest, which the minister did not mention.
http://www.weeklyholiday.net/front.html#07
Transit deal signed by passing JS, FO
Closing eyes to the national interest forgoing revenue earning from
obligatory fee and or duty--over which vocal wrangling between the
Opposition including some think tanks and the government has been
continuing for the recent months-- Ashuganj transit deal, effective
till June 2012, was inked on November 30 to carry over-dimensional
cargoes (ODC) to Tripura. According to the MoU, India will not pay any
fees or service charges for this transit even though it would be using
Bangladesh's rivers and roads.
To this effect a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by
Bangladeshi and Indian officials at the shipping ministry in Dhaka.
With this signing, Bangladesh implemented one of the clauses of the
50-point joint communiqué issued on January 12 during Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina's visit to India.
The MoU was reportedly signed bypassing the concurrence of the
foreign office (FO). As per Rules of Business, 1996, no ministry can
do anything unilaterally if the subject is related to foreign
relations. But in this case the principle has been violated in that no
foreign ministry official was present during the signing.
The knock-down-drag-out polemic airing views on merits and demerits of
granting transit to the neighbouring India has been persisting since
the last military-backed caretaker government that assumed State
authority on 11 January 2007, briefly called 1/11. While waterway
transit continues to link India to her Assam province since long,
until 1965 Indo - Pakistan war railway link between the two countries
existed by three train services carrying goods and passengers.
During the liberation War India was our friend in need which we always
acknowledge, but after independence she could not keep it up in so far
as bilateral relations with Bangladesh are concerned. The developments
that unfolded since the early seventies amply prove that the big
neighbour has not been sincere to let her small neighbour live in
peace. Over the past three decades Bangladesh has been proposing for
solution to various bilateral contentions issues with India, but the
latter has not responded positively till date. The huge trade gap is a
glaring case in point: well over $2 billion imbalance in favour of
India. Relations with India have long been strained for various
reasons. Very often the Indian Border Security Force personnel kill
and abduct Bangladeshi poor villagers. BSF men have killed more than
460 Bangladeshis in the past five years.
Over these years, neither Awami League nor BNP decided on it as it
involves critical questions of national security and stability.
Semantically speaking, 'transit' and 'corridor' have different
denotations; the facility is a corridor when it arrives in the same
country via a foreign state. Thus India demands corridor, but calls it
transit. Again, the connotation of geopolitical danger remains, in
addition to the risk from the Bodo, ULFA and other insurgents of the
seven Indian states.
However, the close relationship and understanding developed between
the two countries did not keep on because of various thorny irritants.
The sharing of water of the Ganges and over half a century common
co-riparian rivers, killing of hundreds of innocent Bangladeshi
civilians, border demarcation and other irritants strained the
relations between the two countries. With the change of government in
India and the coming of the Janata Party headed by Prime Minister
Morarji Desai, ties between the two countries improved. In October
1980, a new trade agreement was signed between India and Bangladesh.
Discourses and debates had been going on over the past several decades
on India's request for granting her transit, which is actually
corridor facility. The opinions have been recommending its discussion
in parliament after the national election when it shall have to be
debated and decided because the very nature of the issue concerns the
security of this country. They quote Article 145A of our Constitution
which says that all treaties with foreign countries shall be submitted
to the President "who shall cause them to be laid before parliament."
For reasons best known to the Awami League government, this has not
been done. People wonder why the government is shying away from this
vital task of discussing the matter in the Jatiya Sangsad
(parliament).
http://www.weeklyholiday.net/edit.html#01
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