[June 17, 2010]
Illegal export of gravel and sand to India is continuing in cahoots with Indian importers and Nepali customs officials.
According to government regulations, sand and gravel can be exported after processing to add value to them.
However, sand and gravel are being exported to India right after being extracted from the Seti River in contravention of the law through the Koshi Barrage Customs Office.
The customs office at Koshi Barrage is issuing customs clearance documents for export without the recommendation of the Contractors' Document Monitoring Committee of the DDC, Morang.
The customs officials are getting bribes from Indian importers to take away the gravel and sand from Nepal. The unauthorised export of mixed gravel is depleting the natural resources of Nepal. The local administration is unable to stop illegal exports. A few months ago, the government had banned the export of sand, gravel, stone and other materials to India as per the direction of natural resource and means committee of parliament.
But it fixed certain standards for the export these materials following an agitation launched by crusher industries.
The government has made a decision to allow the export of sand and gravel under the recommendation of the monitoring and standard determination committee headed by the chief district officer of the respective districts. The government had already circulated the direction to all the district administration offices (DAO), district development committees (DDC) and customs offices of the country.
In addition, the agreement between the commerce ministries of Nepal and India has provisioned that the importing company should be a multi-national company. However, small-scale private companies based in the border towns are involved in the trade.
Ram Prasad Thapaliya, chief district officer of Sunsari, said that his office had not permitted the export of such materials, as there were no crusher industries in Sunsari. Parvati Ghimire, officiating chief of the Koshi Barrage Customs Office, admitted that mixed gravel was being exported through the office by small-scale private companies.
TKP