Demand to restore border trade with China through Lipulekh Pass, goods of 450 traders going waste
Indian traders, who have been doing border trade with China since 1992 through Lipulekh Pass in Pithoragarh district, have requested the Central Government to raise with China the issue of resuming border trade through this route. This trade route was suddenly closed in 2019 following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing Indian traders to abandon their woolen products from Taklakot Mart in Tibet and return. An organization of border traders in Darchula said five years have passed but the route has not been opened.
Demand to open trade route through Lipulekh
Traders from the Bhotia tribe started raising the demand for reopening of the trade route through Lipulekh when China recently started the process of implementing an agreement in which it agreed to open all 14 trade routes with Nepal. Had expressed. Jeevan Singh Rongkali, president of the Indo-Tibetan Frontier Trade Committee, Darachula, said the implementation of the agreement signed by China and Nepal in December 2022 began on May 25 this year, when China opened the Piangi Pass located in Dolpa district of eastern Nepal. .
The business was closed in 2019
He said that three more passes falling in Humla, Bajang and Darchula districts on the Indo-Tibet border in the western region of Nepal will be opened on June 20, 30 and 25 respectively. Rongkali said, “We have so far sent 22 applications to the Indian government, requesting to take up the matter of reopening of the trade route through Lipulekh Pass with the Chinese authorities. But no response has been received yet.” According to Rongkali, Indian tribal traders from Darachula alone left merchandise worth Rs 15 lakh at Taklakot Mart in Tibet when border trade was closed in 2019 following the COVID-19 pandemic. Had given.
Goods of more than 450 traders are becoming useless
He said, “We have no idea whether our goods are safe or in a state of decay. At the time of closure of business, they were kept in ‘plywood covers’. He said that the goods of more than 450 Indian tribal traders were lying there for the last five years. Rongkali said that China had announced in the year 2022 that it will build the Trans Himalayan Multidimensional Connectivity to restructure road and communication links with Nepal. “Since China has not allowed us to open our routes on the India-China border, we fear that the mart built for Indian traders in Gakkhu town of Taklakot may be handed over to Nepali traders,” he said.
