Meghalaya has become a hotbed of illegal sugar export through the land custom stations located across the state along the Indo-Bangladesh border.
This was a complaint lodged by a resident of Pynthorbah, Adelbert Sohtun to the Prime Minister’s Office with allegations that the local MLA, superintendent of customs, police and the Border Security Force (BSF) are involved in the illegal export of sugar.
According to Sohtun, hundreds of trucks from Assam illegally ferry sugar to the land custom stations at Gasuapara, Borsora, Cherragaon, Dawki and Dalu after making payment at police stations. “The general rate to be paid to the officer in charge at the police station which falls on the route of such illegal vehicle is about Rs. 2,500 to Rs 3,000 per vehicle per police station. When these trucks reach the exporting LCS an amount of Rs. 40,000 for big trucks and Rs 2,000 for trucks is paid to the concerned officers for export,” he alleged.
Further he said that the amount is then distributed to the local MLA, who gets Rs 10,000 from small vehicles and Rs 20,000 from big vehicles. The superintendent of customs and the BSF gets Rs 4000 from small vehicles and Rs 8000 from big vehicles while the superintendent of police and the deputy commissioner Rs 2000 and Rs 4000 from small and big vehicles respectively.
“In some areas, the collection is done directly by MLA’s people and in some areas the police are doing the collection. The local MLA is also working in close range with these smugglers to ensure that the media and local public do not report this smuggling to the authorities. The junior officials of the police, administration, customs and BSF also openly claim that they are sharing the bulk of the money with their superiors,” he stated.
He also alleged that smuggling of sugar is being carried out in an organised manner with the involvement of “big people” from Assam and Meghalaya. “This syndicate chooses the transporters who will be permitted to smuggle illegal sugar to Bangladesh,” he added.
Sohtun said that the “organised syndicate” causes loss of hundreds of crores per month to the country’s exchequer in addition to higher inflation causing huge loss to the general public. “The extent of this syndicate is such that recently a group of smugglers who were not pan of this syndicate tried to smuggle sugar, but this syndicate along with its friends in high places singled them out and caught their vehicle and seized the material. The problem doesn’t lie in such seizure but the problem lies that 100s of other vehicles carrying smuggled sugar are plying with full protection of the syndicate,” he added.
Pointing out that the export of sugar was banned as per the Directorate General of Foreign Trade Notification No 36/2023 dated October 18, 2023 to keep inflation under control and for the welfare of the common public, the complainant urged the PMO to launch an investigation into and take serious steps.
A copy of the complaint was also addressed to Rohit Yadav, Joint Secretary Prime Minister Office (PMO), Director General of the BSF Nitin Agarwal, Chairman of the Central Board of Indirect tax & Custom Vivek Joshi, Principal Commissioner of the Central Board of Indirect Tax & Custom Vimal Kumar Srivastava, CVO & Pr. DG (Vigilance) of CBIC Suchitra Sharma and others.
