India urges Bangladesh to reopen border haats in Tripura

The Government of India has urged for opening border haats in Tripura in a bid to facilitate local businesses and livelihood of the people living on either side of the border with Bangladesh.

In a letter to former Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb, India's Union minister of state for commerce and industry, Anupriya Patel, said that the centre has been pursuing Bangladesh to reopen the border haats in Kamlasagar and Srinagar in Sepahijal and South Tripura, reports Times of India.

Deb, who resigned from the chief minister's post in May last year, had urged the Centre during a Special Mention in the Rajya Sabha in December 2022 to reopen the border haats here.

Four border haats, two each in Tripura and Meghalaya, were shut in March 2020 soon after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country and the consequent lockdowns.

However, the two border haats in Meghalaya — at Balat (East Khasi Hills district) and Kalaichar (South West Garo Hills district) were reopened last year and both are functional once in a week now.

Officials of the Tripura industries and commerce department said the Sepahijala and South Tripura district administrations had on a number of occasions approached their Bangladesh counterparts to reopen the border haats as the Covid-19 situation has been brought under control.

"Bangladesh officials said the ministries concerned in Dhaka are yet to allow reopening of the markets," an official of the department said.