NEW DELHI, Jan 18 (BSS): Indian Prime (PM) Minister Dr Manmohan Singh today said his government would take initiatives for amendment to the constitution for approval of the much- awaited land boundary agreement (LBA) with Bangladesh in the upcoming session of Rajya Sabha.
The Indian premier said this when Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed called on him at his official residence here.
The deal was signed between the then PM of Bangladesh Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his Indian counterpart Indira Gandhi in 1974.
In the last session of Rajya Sabha, the Indian government placed a bill for amendment to the constitution to pave the way for passage of the LBA agreement with Bangladesh. To this effect, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was
inked between Dhaka and New Delhi during Manmohan 's visit to Bangladesh in 2011.
Talking to reporters after the meeting, Tofail said he had discussed different issues with the Indian PM including promotion of trade and commerce and increasing investment and connectivity in the region.
"During the talks, the Indian premier laid emphasis on boosting connectivity for expansion of trade," the commerce minister said.
During the meeting, Tofail handed over a message of greetings of PM Sheikh Hasina to the Indian premier.
In reply, Manmohan congratulated Hasina on her landslide victory in the January 5 polls and assumption of the office of the PM for the second consecutive term.
Later, the commerce minister met his Indian counterpart Ananda Sharma at his office.
At the meeting, the two ministers agreed on resolving the pending issues related to trade and commerce between the two countries speedily through discussion.
They also put emphasis on making the Joint Working Group of the Commerce Ministries of both the countries more effective and solving the problems within specific timeframe after identifying those.
Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Tarik A Karim was present on the occasion.
Talking to reporters after the meeting, Tofail said India has allowed duty-free access of all Bangladeshi products except alcohol and tobacco to Indian market.
"But Bangladesh cannot exploit this opportunity due to various reasons including non-tariff and para-tarrif barriers," he said.
Tofail mentioned that Bangladesh is encountering big problems to export its products to India as the latter does not accept the certificate on examining quality issued by Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI).
He said he has raised this issue before his Indian counterpart during the talks.
In reply, Ananda Sharma assured of solving this problem and said India would provide all kinds of assistance in modernisation of the BSTI.
"The Indian commerce minister responded positively to my proposal for raising the number of border haats to four from two," Tofail said.
