INTERNATIONAL BORDER

Section 144 along international border to curb smuggling

COOCH BEHAR, March 19: The district magistrate of Cooch Behar, Mr RK Sinha has promulgated Section 144 CrPC along the entire International border in Cooch Behar district. The said order shall remain in force for two months from now on. Any person violating the order shall be liable for prosecution under Section 188 IPC.
According to the district magistrate, the Section 144 CrPC was promulgated aiming to prevent breach of peace and large scale smuggling of essential commodities to Bangladesh.
Following the order, the persons and agencies lawfully employed in connection with maintenance of law and order, prevention of smuggling and for gathering of intelligence inputs are exempted from the purview of the order.

No one will be allowed to carry 24 scheduled commodities within a distance of one-kilometre from the Indo-Bangladesh border in eight police station areas in the district, from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. without prior written permission of the DM. These eight police stations are : Mathabhanga, Mekhliganj, Kuchlibari, Haldibari, Tufanganj, Dinhata, Sitai and Sitalkuchi.
Twenty-four commodities described in Schedule-A in the order, were restricted for carrying. These are : rice and paddy, wheat and wheat products, kerosene, sugar, mustard oil, coconut oil, fertiliser, textile goods, iron and steel, bidi leaves, tobacco, machine parts, baby food, cycle parts, salt, tea, tyre and tubes, dry batteries, petrol and diesel, raw jute, dal (pulses), cattle, cement and betel nuts.
Following the order, markets and shops of that zone shall not be allowed to transact business from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. The restriction on assembly for haat or shopping purpose will remain in force during the stipulated period.
By the same order, a ban was also clamped on the grazing of cattle within 300 metres of the Bangladesh border from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. This step was taken to check cattle lifting by miscreants from the other side of the border and stop smuggling of cattle, Mr Sinha said.
In his order the district magistrate mentioned that the prohibitory order was promulgated following information that there was serious apprehension of breach of peace in the Indo-Bangladesh border areas of the district due to shortage of essential commodities caused by large scale smuggling into Bangladesh by miscreants and anti-social elements.