Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar has placed great emphasis on increased connectivity in terms of people-to-people contact, waterways, railways and road links between Bangladesh and India with particular reference to his state for the betterment of the lives of peoples of the two neighbours.
In an exclusive interview with The Independent on October 9 at his official residence in Agartala, the capital of Tripura, he expressed satisfaction over the present Bangladesh-Tripura relationship and engagements and stressed the need of reestablishment of the links that were closed earlier.
At the same time, he added that there is always scope for improvement and indications are there that things will improve in the coming days.
“Both the countries are more or less dependent on each other. Connectivity with regards to road, railways and waterways will benefit both the countries including Tripura,” said the Chief Minister, who has been in office since March 11, 1998.
“People-to-people contact is the most important. The more people will know each other are better,” he said, stressing the need for easing the visa regime to facilitate movements of peoples of the two countries.
On the current state of the relationship and engagements between Bangladesh and Tripura, Sarkar said, “It is getting improved every day. But, there is always a scope for further improvement.”
Many closed avenues are opening and will keep opening, he said, adding that there should be a greater emphasis on increasing trade and commerce which will be good for all.
On connectivity, Sarkar said that the use of Chittagong seaport will benefit the north-eastern region of India and lessen the transportation cost of products reducing the spending of people.
“By doing this, both Bangladesh and India will be benefited,” he said, adding, “You don’t always have to think about profit and loss in a friendly relations.”
Citing an instance, the Chief Minister said, “Now, it takes us 38 hours to travel from Agartala to Delhi. But, if we can go through Bangladesh after the completion of Akhaura-Agartala rail link it will take us 24 hours, a reduction of 14 hours.”
He recalled some of Bangladesh’s positive gestures to Tripura like export of internet bandwidth, allowing the transportation of over-dimensional cargo through its territory during the construction of the Palatana power plant, transhipment of food grains and recent transportation of fuel oil from Assam to Tripura as the regular Indian route was damaged due to flood.
In response to these gestures, the Chief Minister said that as a power surplus state, Tripura supplied 100 megawatt of electricity to Bangladesh, which needs power.
“Tripura is ready to provide another 100 MW power to Bangladesh. The centre has also agreed. The power supply will begin after the completion of some official procedures, he said. Asked if Tripura will supply more power in addition to these 200 MW, Sarker said, “It is likely.” When asked about any timeframe, he said, “It is too early to say.” To a question regarding alleged presence of anti-India insurgency groups in Bangladesh, the Chief Minister said, “These are anti-government groups which want to break the unity of my government. The Bangladesh-India security cooperation is very good right now. There has been significant improvement in this regard following Bangladesh’s tough stance against these elements.” “There are still some dens in Bangladesh. But, this can be addressed through cooperation between the two sides,” he added.