ITANAGAR, Oct 16: A state team headed by Deputy Speaker Tesam Pongte is currently in Manipur on an official visit to study the infrastructure, set-up, organisation and functioning of the border trade point at Moreh (Manipur).
The team visited the land customs station office at the border trade point in Moreh and had ‘fruitful’ discussions with the officers of the department of Commerce & Industry, Government of Manipur, the Commandant of 43 Assam Rifles, officers from integrated check post and customs and trade body represented by Moreh Border Trade Chamber of Commerce secretary Surinder Singh Patheja on 15 October.
On 14 October, they called on Manipur Governor Dr Najma Heptulla and shared similar issues related to border trade of Arunachal Pradesh with the governor.
The team was supposed to make a courtesy call on Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Wednesday.
The visiting team includes MLAs Laisam Simai and Zingnu Namchoom, Secretary to GoAP Anirudh S Singh, Trade & Commerce Director Tokong Pertin and Deputy Secretary Sonyung Modi. The visit was made at the direction of Governor BD Mishra.
The team will submit the detailed report of the visit to the state government on their return to the state capital here.
“Arunachal Pradesh is strategically placed to act as a land bridge between mainland India and the ASEAN countries because of its geographical position, and there lies a great potential for increasing India’s trade with ASEAN and other border countries through the Pangsau Pass under the Indo-Myanmar Sector, which can be fruitfully exploited by creating world-class infrastructure for logistics as well as transport,” said Trade & Commerce Director Pertin.
He said that the visit to study the set-up and functioning of the border trade point at Moreh will be impetus in shaping the border trade point at Pangsau Pass through land customs station, Nampong in Changlang district.
The land customs station at Nampong (Pangsau Pass) was approved and notified by the Government of India way back in 1951, which is now lying non-functional.
At present, traditional, informal low profile trade (thrice in a month) is being carried out at Nampong (Pangsau Pass). The indigenous hill tribes of both India and Burma (Myanmar) living within 40 km were exempted from the requirement of the Indian Passport Rules, 1950.
As per latest amended rule under Free Movement Regime, 40 km of exempted area is now reduced to 16 km. It is presently organized on every 10th, 20th and 30th of every month on Myanmar side in the form of melas or bazaars under the supervision of the district administration and paramilitary forces.
Every Friday of the week is declared as ‘Myanmar Day’, wherein the Myanmarese nationals- villagers and government officials- come down to Nampong to buy their day-to-day requirements and other essentials.
