August 28, 2005

THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM

I have said it before that the illegal border trades and the involvement of the security forces people are the key causes for the India-Bangladesh border strifes.

Now the Indian media is taking notice as it finds that the headache of the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) personnel is the smuggling of cattle from India to Bangladesh, which is valued approximately at Indian Rupees 1000 crore per annum (approx 2% of Bangladesh budget). Although they aim to fence much of the land borders, there are 4000 km waterways acting as borders which are very difficult to police.

'The Economic Times' also finds that:

India would have earned some revenue, if it had legalised the cattle export to Bangladesh. But no government can take the initiative of legalising it because of the sensitivity of cattle export.

Legal trade would also be beneficial to Bangladesh as instead of those middlemen, the government would get customs revenue. So I think its high time to legalize the cattle trade between Bangladesh, which will also help reduce the recurring border problems.

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