In the morning of August 19, passengers, who were sleeping on a bus heading to Burimari border, woke up to a loud shout of the supervisor of a bus jointly belonging to SR Paribahan and Shyamoli Paribahan. This bus will drop the passengers at Burimari in Lalmonirhat and after crossing the border, the passengers will board another bus of the same companies from Changrabandha, the Indian side of the border, and will travel to Siliguri.
“Keep your passport and Tk 550 ready. We will soon reach Burimari border,” shouted the supervisor. When asked to explain, he told this correspondent, “This money is for travel tax.”
Being reminded that travel tax is Tk 500 not 550, the supervisor said smilingly, “The brother seems to be new crossing the borders. The additional Tk 50 has to be paid for the service.” “Just give him the money. It has to be paid, otherwise it will take more time,” advised a fellow passenger.
At the immigration desks, the situation was literally anarchic, with no discipline whatsoever. Many people cannot properly fill in the departure forms. There were helping hands available to help them, of course, in exchange for Tk 100. People of bus companies were found inside the immigration office, which should be a prohibited area.“How much Bangladeshi taka and dollars do you have?” a custom official asked this correspondent. Having received the reply, he demanded Tk 100. When asked for the

reason, the official replied, “We have to work here and there are other expenses.” When reminded that this was his job and he was paid for this by the government, he became very annoyed and told his correspondent to stand aside. While waiting, it was witnessed that almost everybody was being forced to pay Tk 100 in ‘service’ charges. As this correspondent identified himself to be a journalist, another official said, “Please, you go. Why did you not provide us your identity before?” It may be mentioned that most of the passengers do not buy dollars for their India travels rather they take Bangladeshi taka in large quantity because by Bangladeshi 1000 and 500 taka currency notes, they get better deal when they exchange the currency into rupees. And, Bangladeshi customs allow this by taking some ‘service charge’ without thinking about the impact of this on the economy of the country. “I always bring Bangla taka. It gives me more Indian money than dollars,” a gentleman in his 40’s with a bundle of 1000 taka notes in his hand told this correspondent in a pleased voice. “You too should have brought Bangla taka instead of dollars,” he advised.
After crossing the no man’s land, passengers arrived at the Chengrabandha check post. In this side as well, there were money game involved, but to a lower extent.
People, who are unable to fill in arrival forms and have some problems in their passports and issues with customs, were allowed to continue their journey to Siliguri in return for some ‘service charges’.” One thing has been noticed on the Indian side of the border area that Bangladeshi taka can be used like Indian rupee.
On return journey on September 23, the bus from Siliguri departed late and it arrived at the Chengrabandha after the official closure of the immigration check posts in India as well as Bangladesh.  The bus supervisor told the anxious correspondent not to worry because the immigration posts will remain open until they cross.
“We have arrangements with them,” he said proudly.
On the Indian side, though it was late, the officials concerned were ‘very strict’ in applying laws relating to customs and immigration only to be ‘flexible’ after receiving some ‘service charges’.
The same ‘money game’ that took place on September 19 was there. But, this time round, custom people took the lead as the bags of Bangladeshis were full of shopping. They were all cleared by the Indian officials for hard cash with the help of bus company’s people, who negotiated for the passengers.
At this point, a Bangladeshi girl, who is a student at a renowned school in Siliguri, had an issue with regard to police registration. The officer-in-charge bluntly said, “I can’t do anything in this regard as it is beyond my power. The girl has to go back to Siliguri to fix it before she can go to Bangladesh.”
The girl started crying with the prospect of returning to Siliguri alone at that odd time of the day.
The bus people came in her aid. They tried to reinstate the power of the officer with some cash payment, but the girl did not have that much money. Then, the bus people contacted her mother on phone and sorted out the problem. The solution was that the bus people gave the money and the mother would return the money in Bangladesh. The girl stopped crying and crossed the border to reunite with fellow passengers and later with her family, who were waiting to see her after a long time.
Having crossed into Bangladesh in the dark, all the passengers again faced the problems like in September 19. Here also, the custom people took the lead role in realising the cash from the people, who did heavy shopping. On very few occasions, money is realised in the form of legal taxation for any taxable items.
One individual from Barisal was forced to pay Tk 100 to the custom people. When asked, the young man said, “You cannot leave the place without paying.”
People who are forced to pay extra money for the services they are entitled to seem to be unmoved by these irregularities. They appeared to have taken this as a way of life.  “You cannot expect a job done without money in either Bangladesh or India. This has become a practice. There is nobody to look at this. We are simply helpless,” said a Bangladeshi gentleman.
This unfortunate scenario does not only apply to Burimari-Chengrabandha border. Same situation prevails at Akhaura-Agartala, Benapole-Petrapole and Tamabil-Dawki check posts, the correspondent visited recently.
Among them, the situation at Benapole-Petrapole border is the worst as more people use this check post while the situation at Akhaura-Agartala and Tamabil-Dawki posts appeared to be bit better than others.
When contacted, Anti-Corruption Commission Chairman Iqbal Mahmood lamented that there are corruption everywhere in the country and in line with this trend, immigration check posts were not exception.
“You (journalists) report about this. Taking your reports into cognisance we will look into the matter,” he said, stressing the need for awareness among the people.
TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman described the malpractices as unfortunate, saying, “Here, law enforcers are the law breakers. Those who are responsible for these malpractices should be brought under justice.”
About taking these corruption and malpractices normally by the people, he said, “Some people are compelled to pay the extra money. People should register their protest.”
On the issue, Home Secretary Md Mozammel Haque Khan said that he had not received any specific complaints about these malpractices. “Whenever I go there, I find everything okay,” he said. But, he said that generally there is a perception about the people belonging to the departments working at the check posts. “We are trying to fix this,” he added, placing great emphasis on continuous reporting by journalists about the malpractices. About the irregularity and corruption on the Indian side of the border, a diplomat at the Indian high commission in Dhaka told The Independent that the effort of the Indian government was always to make things smoother for the travellers. “Whenever we get any such complaints, we take it up with the concerned agency and try to address the issue,” he said.