Nathu-la opens today after winter break
Posted by barunroy on May 19, 2008
Gangtok, May 18: Border trade through Nathu-la at 14,400ft will reopen for the third year tomorrow, after a five-month winter break.
The reopening was earlier scheduled for May 1, but was pushed back by three weeks because of landslides in Yadong county in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) of China.
The Union commerce ministry in a last minute instruction to the Sikkim government on April 30 asked it to defer the reopening after China requested New Delhi to put off the trade because of landslides between Renquinngang and Donquinggang.
While there will not be any formal programme to mark the reopening, commerce minister R.B. Subba and senior officials of his department are expected to be present at the Sherathang trade mart on the Indian side of the border.
However, this time too, the list of items in the trade list has not been revised by the Centre. Currently, there are only 15 items that can be imported from China while 29 can be sent from this side. Most of the items on the list are old and obsolete. Despite a demand from traders on both the sides and even Chinese officials endorsing the expansion, the Centre is yet to oblige.
“Trading has been poor in the last two seasons. It will not improve much till the list is expanded,” said Chimi Rinzing Bhutia, the president of the Indo-China Traders’ Association of Sikkim.
Chinese officials who were in Sikkim last year had made it clear that trading would be difficult in future unless the list was expanded.
Last year, trade was limited to Rs 34.6 lakh during the seven months from May to November.
Trading of rice, which is a major item sent from India, was affected when the export of the non-Basmati category was banned since October last year. [The Telegraph]
