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| Cross-LoC trade: modern facilities coming up | | Central team reviews progress | | Early Times Reporter
Srinagar | Sep 7
On the second day of its two-day visit to J&K, the Central team comprising senior officers form the Ministries of External Affairs, Home and Finance (Department of Revenue) today had a meeting with the State Government officers headed by the Chief Secretary, S. S. Kapur on facilities being created at Chakan da Bagh for Cross-LoC trade through Poonch-Rawlakote route.
The Central team was represented by Joint Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, Joint Secretary, Home (K) and Commissioner, Customs. The State side was represented by Director General of Police, Principal Secretary, Home, DGP CID, Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir and Commissioner/Secretary, Industries & Commerce. The Chief Engineer, BEACON was also present.
Giving details of the central team’s visit and the meeting held today, the Chief Secretary said that the team visited Salamabad and Kaman Post in Uri yesterday and inspected the facilities for the cross-LoC trade via Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road. He said the team also saw progress on improvement and widening of the road leading to the Kaman Post and expressed satisfaction over the facilities at Salamabad and the up-gradation of the road. He said the entire road would be metalled up to the Kaman Post in few weeks.
Kapur said that facilities for the Cross-LoC trade at Salamabad would be fully in place within the next three to four weeks and additional land was being acquired for the construction of a state-of-the-art Land Custom Station there. He said a similar facility would be raised at Chakan da Bagh in Poonch for Cross-LoC trade through Poonch_Rawlakote road. In the meanwhile, he said, temporary Land Custom Station would be constructed there to facilitate the trade across the LoC. He said the Central team was scheduled to visit Chakan da Bagh today but due to the inclement weather the visit could not materialize.
The Chief Secretary said that the Land Custom Station (LCS) at Chakan da Bagh would be constructed in two phases. He said 45 kanals of land had been identified out of which 24 kanals were the government land. He said initially, temporary facilities would be erected on these 24 kanals of land while another 21 kanals would be acquired to have a permanent Land Custom Station built there. He said detailed project reports would be prepared for the two Land Custom Stations at Salamabad and Chakan da Bagh to be constructed in a time bound manner.
On Cross-LoC trade, Kapur said that the lists of items to be traded on both sides had already been exchanged between India and Pakistan and were awaiting final agreement. He said Pakistan had earlier insisted on common list but has reportedly now changed its earlier position. He said India had forwarded to Pakistan the names of a proposed trade delegation to visit PoK for finalizing modalities of import and export of items with their counterparts there but it was not cleared by the neighbouring country so far. On the contrary, he said we have already cleared their proposed delegation for a visit to J&K. He said Pakistan has now agreed to send a trade delegation to Jammu & Kashmir. He said India was ready to receive the delegation or send the one first, whichever was agreeable to Pakistan. He said the Government would take the local Chambers of Commerce in Kashmir and Jammu on board regarding these visits so that mutually agreed dates were finalized.
The Chief Secretary said that the Governor had given clear instructions to the administration to provide whatever facilities were required for the early start of the Cross- LoC trade. He said on September 2, the Governor chaired a high level meeting of the State Government functionaries and took stock of the preparations and the facilities put in place for opening the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road for Cross-LoC trade. |
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