Police at Manipur’s border town of Moreh, and members of the Moreh COVID-19 Task Force rounded up several Myanmar nationals on Friday and pushed them back to their country. These foreigners, mostly women, had entered the town to sell vegetables and other food items.
Additional Police Superintendent M. Amit said, “The government had sealed the Indo-Myanmar border from last year to check spread of COVID in this border town. These foreigners were found selling the vegetable items. Before sending them back to Myanmar they were explained the measures taken up at Moreh to control the pandemic.”
From February last year the legal border trade has been stopped. However, some smugglers are believed to be carrying on their thriving underworld business. Police and Assam Rifles personnel have been seizing gold, narcotics drugs, timbersand other contraband items along National Highway 102.
Meanwhile, the government plan to purchase vegetables from farmers for selling through the Manipur Organic Mission Agency has not had the desired result. Apart from the practical difficulty, farmers say that they cannot bring the vegetables and other items in view of the curfew. Besides the women retailers have been selling most of these items at small stalls along the road, in village lanes and football grounds. The women also bring vegetables from other districts and there is always a huge crowd to make their purchases.
Taking the ground realities into consideration, the government has started announcing the particular dates when the vegetable markets and grocery shops will be open in the valley districts. The government is also appealing to the people to maintain the COVID-19 protocols.
