Fish export to Tripura resumes

Bangladeshi exporters yesterday restarted supplying fish to the traders in Tripura following a 25-day hiatus over “alleged demands for extortion by anti-socials” in the north eastern Indian state.

The resumption was brought about after a seven-member exporters' delegation of Akhaura went to Agartala and held a meeting with the importers on Friday. Pratima Bhaumick, vice president of the Tripura unit of Bharatiya Janata Party, assured the exporters that any future extortion attempt would be firmly dealt with, said Khokan Bhaumick, secretary to the Exporter and Importer Entrepreneur Sangha, a platform of exporters and importers.

 Bangladeshi exporters took Pratima Bhaumick's words for it and both parties agreed to resume fish supply, he said. “We have received huge consignments of fish including rui, pabda, katla, bhetki and chingri. The supply is adequate and there will be no crisis of fish in markets in Tripura,” he added.

A sizeable quantity of fish enters Tripura from Bangladesh through the Agartala-Akhaura checkpoint, said an Indian customs official.

Abani Debbarma, joint director of Tripura fisheries department, said the state produced about 70 percent of its consumption while Bangladesh, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh met the rest of the demand.