Won't ever till my land across Bangla border, says freed farmer
Jalpaiguri: Released from Bangladesh's Lalmonirhat prison after 29 days, Ukil Barman, a resident of Cooch Behar's Sitalkuchi, on Thursday vowed never to cultivate his four-bigha land off the Indo-Bangla barbed wire fence.
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
Barman, in his mid-50s, was kidnapped by Bangladeshi miscreants on April 16 while tilling his own land. He was intercepted by Border Guard Bangladesh. After days of negotiations and multiple flag meetings between BSF and BGB, Barman was allowed to return to India on Wednesday night.
"I will no longer farm across the border. I will sell all my land. I won't allow my son to farm near the border either. The thought of being imprisoned in Bangladesh is scary.
I want to thank BSF and our chief minister," he said.
Barman was taken to a local court to testify to his return, a legal formality to formally close the missing diary lodged by his wife.
His son Paritosh said: "We will no longer work on our land across the border. We have four bighas of land there, which is our livelihood. We request the Indian govt to acquire our land and compensate us. We don't want to work on Indian land across the border, where we constantly live in fear."
Trinamool's Cooch Behar MP Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia lauded the efforts by Centre and Bengal govt to bring back Barman from Bangladeshi custody. He said BSF and Bengal govt worked in tandem to ensure his return.
Junior Union minister and Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar thanked PM Narendra Modi and the Union home and external affairs ministries for bringing back Barman, a Rajbanshi farmer.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India Today
24 minutes ago
- India Today
Mob vandalises Rabindranath Tagore's ancestral mansion in Bangladesh
The ancestral home of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, known as Rabindra Kacharibari, in Bangladesh's Sirajganj district, was attacked and vandalised by a mob on Tuesday. The attack, which targeted the auditorium and other parts of the heritage site, vandalising window panes, doors, and furniture, was triggered by an altercation between a visitor and the staff over a motorcycle parking fee on Sunday (June 8), according to media the attack, authorities shut down the site and formed a probe panel to investigate the incident.A case was lodged on Wednesday (June 11) against 50–60 individuals, including 10 named accused, in connection with the mob attack on the historic site, reported the Dhaka-based Daily Star. Rabindra Kacharibari, literally meaning "Tagore's estate office home", was where Rabindranath Tagore's family oversaw their estate in Sirajganj's Shahzadpur upazila. Now the mansion serves as a memorial museum. The mansion, purchased by Rabindranath Tagore's father, was visited by the poet multiple times, during which he stayed and wrote parts of several of his June 8, Bangladeshi expatriate Shah Newaz visited the Kachharibari with his family, where he got into an altercation with an employee at the entrance over a motorcycle parking fee, Bangladeshi daily New Age Newaz was allegedly locked up in an office room and physically by the incident, locals staged a protest by forming a human chain on demonstration was followed by a mob attack on the auditorium in the premises of Rabindra Kacharibari, during which the director of the institution was also assaulted.(The story will be updated soon)
The Hindu
26 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Addressing non-tariff barriers key for India, EU trade pact, says Piyush Goyal
Finding solutions to address non-tariff barriers would be important for the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between India and the European Union (EU) and both sides are actively working on resolving these issues, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday (June 12, 2025). He said the two sides are "pretty" close to finalising the talks for the proposed free trade pact. "Significant progress has been made. More than half the chapters are ready. In terms of content, I would say we are almost 90 per cent ready for market access. The important issues to be addressed are non-tariff barriers and how we will make it smoother, easier, and better to do business between the EU and India," Mr. Goyal told reporters in Stockholm. He added that both India and the EU are in active discussions to find solutions to make business smooth for companies of both sides. "Unless countries recognise that over regulation and barriers to trade will be met with reciprocal action, everybody suffers. We are committed to deregulation, to finding solutions to the high cost of regulation, the non-tariff barriers that these regulations cause and the impediments to free trade. I am quite hopeful that we will find very robust solutions to this problem," the Minister said. He is here on an official visit to meet his Swedish counterpart and companies for promoting trade and investments between the two countries. Sweden is a member of the 27-nation EU bloc. Key Indian exports that routinely face high barriers in the EU include — chillies, tea, Basmati rice, milk, poultry, bovine meat, fish, chemicals products. Most non-tariff measures (NTMs) are domestic rules created by countries with an aim to protect human, animal or plant health and environment. NTM may be technical measures such as regulations, standards, testing, certification, pre-shipment inspection or non-technical measures like quotas, import licensing, subsidies, government procurement restrictions. When NTMs become arbitrary, beyond scientific justification, they create hurdles for trade and are called NTBs (non-tariff barriers). India's exports are far below potential as they face NTBs in regions, including the EU, the US, China, Japan, and Korea. According to think tank GTRI, the EU has set MRL (minimum residual limit) for tricyclazole, a fungicide in rice, to 0.01 mg per kg as against the ten times higher limit earlier. Similarly, the EU has set MRL for aflatoxins B1 level in chilies and other spices at 5 to 10 ppb (parts per billion). The minister said negotiations on services and rules or origin have started. To give an impetus to the ongoing talks for the FTA, EU Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maros Sefcovic is expected to visit New Delhi on June 28-29. On the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), Goyal said this measure is "not good" as it is also a kind of a non-tariff barrier. This carbon tax, if imposed, will do injustice to Indian industry, he said, adding that if the EU will take any such step, India will have to respond to that. FTA talks are happening in a good environment and it will not be good to impose carbon tax on Indian goods, he added. "Our talks are going on the issue to find ways to deal with this," the minister said, adding that some good solutions will come out on this. On February 28, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen agreed to seal a much-awaited free trade deal by this year amid rising concerns over US President Donald Trump's policy on tariffs. In June 2022, India and the 27-nation EU bloc resumed the negotiations after a gap of over eight years. It stalled in 2013 due to differences over the level of opening up of the markets. India's bilateral trade in goods with the EU was $136.4 billion in 2024-25 (exports $75.75 billion, imports $60.65 billion), making it the largest trading partner of India for goods. The EU market accounts for about 17 per cent of India's total exports, while the EU's exports to India make up 9% of its total exports. EU's investments in India are valued at over $117 billion with around 6,000 European companies present in India. India's investments in the EU are valued at around $40 billion.
The Hindu
26 minutes ago
- The Hindu
PM Modi lauds India's technological, digital progress in past 11 years
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday (June 12, 2025) hailed India's digital and technological progress stating that the country is making remarkable progress in innovation and application of technology. The Prime Minister highlighted that that the digital progress is also strengthening country's efforts towards becoming self reliant in the technology sector. Taking to his X social media platform PM Modi shared a post by MyGovIndia, which talks about how India could become the next technology powerhouse of the world and the steps taken by the Union Government in the past 11 years in the sector. Leveraging the power of technology has brought innumerable benefits for people. Service delivery and transparency have been greatly boosted. Furthermore, technology has become a means of empowering the lives of the poorest of poor. #11YearsOfDigitalIndiahttps:// — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 12, 2025 "Powered by the youth of India, we are making remarkable progress in innovation and application of technology. It is also strengthening our efforts to become self-reliant and a global tech powerhouse", PM Modi said. India has recorded a surge of 2500 times in the volume of UPI transaction with data showing that UPI transaction which was at 0.93 crore in April 2017 increased to 1867.70 crore until April is also leading the digital payment revolution wherein more than Rs 260 lakh crore transactions have been processed with Rs 18,600 crore transactions annually. UPI's acceptance in the world has also increased and it is live in seven countries including UAE, Singapore, Nepal, France, Mauritius, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. India also stands as world's cheapest mobile data providers with more than 94 crore broadband connections and more than 120 crore telephone subscribers. A total of 2.18 lakh gram panchayats have been connected through optical fiber network under the Bharat Net scheme and 6.92 lakh km of fiber cable has been laid.T The Union Government has also showcased interest in Artificial Intelligence with three AI Centres of Excellence to be setup in top educational institutions. India is also working over the development of AI models such as BharatGen, Sarvam-1, Chitralekha and Hanooman's Everest 1.0. On june 10, Prime Minister Modi shared an article on the government's commitment in advancing India's digital connectivity over the past 11 years. PM shares an article by Union Minister Scindia Sharing an article by Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, PM Modi said, "Our government has been constantly striving to provide world-class facilities in digital connectivity to the country. In his article, Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has explained in detail how the success achieved in this in the last 11 years is inspiring us to move forward even faster in this direction. "In his article, Mr. Scindia elaborated on how villages have started telling the story of digital said on X, "In the last 11 years, the historic decisions taken in the telecom sector and the Postal Department, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modiji, have given rise to a digital revolution, connecting not only cities, but also villages, forests and borders."
