RailEnquiry

Amritsar : With yet another recovery of contraband from a cement cargo from Pakistan coming to the fore, Indian importers have sought stringent measures to curb the trend that is posing a threat to the future of the cement import business.A delegation of the All-India Cement Importers Association today met the Commissioner, Customs. Association president MPS Chatha said since wagons were loaded and sealed by the Pakistani customs authorities, Indian officials should take up the matter with them to ensure a strict inspection at the time of loading of the consignment.“We have also requested the Indian authorities to have stringent measures in place like scanners and sniffer dogs for carrying out checks on the consignment from Pakistan.” He said these measures would deter such activities which caused unnecessary harassment to the importers. He said if the trend was not curbed effectively, it might threaten cement import from Pakistan.Chatha said they had also shot off missives to the Prime Minister, Union Finance Minister and the Union Commerce Minister in this regard.CII National Council on Public Policy member Gunbir Singh said these instances had reaffirmed the demand of the traders that instead of carrying out random checks, scanners should be installed to scan the entire consignment. He said the contraband could be put into anybody’s consignment which might lead to harassment of innocent importers. He also reiterated his demand for bringing the rail link with Pakistan under the ambit of the ICP which was 300-400 m away from the rail route. “At present, there are open warehouses which are vulnerable to vagaries of weather, besides being open to any mischief. If these come under the ICP, which is a bounded area, nobody will dare to mess with these,” he averred.A spokesperson for the Confederation of International Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CICCI) said anti-national forces across the border wished to derail and create hurdles in the peaceful business relationships between India and Pakistan. He said the government should find an early solution to the problem so that genuine traders should not suffer.