Dhaka
enforces ban on coal imports from region
OUR CORRESPONDENT
TELEGRAPH INDIA
Silchar, June 21: The caretaker government in neighbouring
Bangladesh has decided to enforce a ban on import of coal
from across its border with south Assam’s Karimganj
district from June 29.
The new regime is firm on banning the import of such coal,
bearing low ash but with high sulphur content, as it leads
to pollution hazards.
The embargo will hit India’s coal traders hard as in the
last fiscal itself, exports worth a whopping Rs 33 crore
of the mineral went across to the neighbouring country.
This coal is extracted manually, without the aid of
sophisticated mechanical devices, from the low-depth coal
pits in Meghalaya’s Khleriat and Bapung areas.
According to reports from Bangladesh reaching Karimganj
district’s headquarters, the interim government has made
it clear that no coal imports would be allowed with effect
from June 29.
In a terse letter to the Bangladesh Importers and
Exporters Federation, headquartered in capital Dhaka, the
caretaker government has pointed out that its members
could instead import shipments of low-sulphur coal in bulk
from Indonesia or China.
However, these products would be priced higher, owing to
the cheaper cost of transport of Meghalaya coal by land.
The primary objection of the army-run Bangladesh
government to imports of Meghalaya coal is over the
inherent pollution hazard. The high sulphur mixture in it,
at the rate of seven to nine per cent, is the culprit.
Such coal, according to pollution control experts, tends
to emit excessive amounts of smoke mixed with sulphur,
causing a significant threat to human health. But it
enjoys high demand in the adjoining country as it is used
in the 2,500-odd brick kilns there.
Earlier, the Khaleda Zia government regime had also banned
import of such coal from India as many as four times. Each
time, however, it had rescinded this order after the
Bangladesh Importers and Exporters Federation lobbied hard
in Dhaka, pleading for uninterrupted import of Meghalaya
coal by road across the Suterkandi checkgate in Karimganj
district. They favoured the coal because of its cheap
pricing and easy availability.
Sources disclosed that the then finance minister in the
Khaleda Zia regime, Saifur Rahaman, relented every time
there was a chorus of protests from the importers of his
country against the ban.
Reports from Bangladesh added that a delegation of the
Sylhet Chamber of Commerce and Industries, led by its
president Dilwar Hussain, is in Dhaka, pressing government
agencies for retaining this import system for coal.
Assam Exporters and Importers Association general
secretary Krishnendu Paul said at Karimganj today that
this embargo would spell doom for the coal trade. In the
last fiscal, coal valued at some Rs 33 crore and weighing
about two lakh metric tonnes was exported through the
Suterkandi trade centre.
Sources added that efforts are now on to install some
devices, built with new technology, for each cluster of
coal pits in the adjacent state. This would ensure proper
cleansing of sulphur in the exportable coals to a
substantial extent. However, implementation of this scheme
would take time.
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