M M Jasim :The government has activated diplomatic channels to bring sufficient cattle from India and Myanmar to resolve the crisis of sacrificial animals ahead of Eid-ul-Azha in the wake of India’s restriction on transportation of livestock. In this regard, the government is preparing to give formal proposal to India to boost the Bangladesh-India cattle trade by allowing sales at border haats, officials said on Wednesday. “The government has taken several initiatives to resolve the meat crisis. We are trying to open the channels. So far we think, there may be a 10 to 15 percent shortage of sacrificial animals this year because of the Indian restriction,” Narayon Chandra Chanda, State Minister for Fisheries and Livestock, said yesterday.About bringing cattle from India, Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce Hedayetullah Al Mamoon yesterday said, “The proposal has yet to take shape. It’s a bilateral issue. We have planned to discuss on the issue to give a concrete structure.” Sources said, the government took the initiatives at a time when India’s domestic cattle market appears to face more difficulties because of increasing political pressure to ban on slaughtering and intra-state trading of cattle. Recently, Haryana is one of the major sources of cattle heads for Bangladesh’s market has enacted law banning slaughtering and intra-state trading of cows. In this backdrop, Jahir Uddin Ahmed, Additional Secretary of Commerce Ministry told The New Nation yesterday, “Cattle are yet not an official trade item under Commerce Ministry. However, the government will encourage the traders to bring cattle from neighboring countries under auspicious of National Board of Revenue (NBR). In that case, the BGB will co-operate them.” He said that his ministry was awaiting reassurance from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to make sure that the proposal was ‘diplomatically decent’ before it was proposed to New Delhi.Robiul Alam, Secretary General of Bangladesh Meat Traders Association said, “We are pushing the government for cattle trading at border haats. It will be difficult to maintain the meat market without the cattle of the Inida. So far we think, India would never stop cattle trade altogether, as some of its states, including West Bengal, heavily relies on livestock earning.””The government’s rule is necessary to create channel to bring cattle through the negotiation between the two governments. Otherwise, the country will face problem,” he said. On the other hand, the government has also started bringing Burmese cattle by a group of cattle traders through formal channel. The Bangladeshi traders enter Myanmar after paying taxes to Border Guard of Bangladesh (BGB) through Shapuridip livestock entry port.Official sources said, the cattle are coming from Akyab (Sittwee), Mrohaung, Kyauktaw, Kyaukpru, Maybone, Pauktaw and south parts of Arakan State, Myanmar. The cattle traders, most of them are Mogh, bring cattle to Bangladesh with hope to sell at high prices as Eid-ul-Azah is coming soon.NBR sources said that about 2.2 million Indian cattle entered the country in 2014. “In the past, 2,000 cattle used to cross our border points each day. Now it has stopped,” said Mohammad Abdullah, a trader from the Jessore district.
