India’s onion-laden trucks stuck at border: 2nd day of talks held

Officials of India's External Affairs and Commerce Ministries today held discussions for the second successive day on how to ensure that trucks carrying onions from India and stranded at the border with Bangladesh are allowed to cross into that country.

The officials of the two ministries held their first round of talks yesterday and continued discussions today, our New Delhi correspondent reports quoting sources of the ministries.

The discussions were necessitated by India's imposition of a ban on export of onions from last Monday, which resulted in hundreds of trucks being held up along all the trade points in West Bengal's border with Bangladesh.

The sources said the two rounds of talks between the ministries appeared to have moved in a positive direction and an end to the stalemate was expected soon.

According to the sources, the officials agreed that consignments of onion that have already been cleared by the Indian customs at land and sea ports and those for which letters of credit were opened be allowed to enter Bangladesh.

However, it is unlikely that onions from various Indian states which are on the way to the border trade points would be allowed to enter Bangladesh, the sources said.

Since the imposition of the export ban was a political decision, any decision relating to how to allow the consignments held up at the border needed to be cleared at the "highest political quarters", said the sources.

Onion traders said an early resolution to the problem was needed because the kitchen bulb is a perishable commodity.