COOCH BEHAR, Aug. 22: The district magistrate of Cooch Behar, Dr Ravi Inder Singh has promulgated Section 144 CrPC along the entire International border in Cooch Behar district. The said order shall remain in force till 10 October. Any person violating the order shall be liable for prosecution under Section 188 IPC. 

According to the district magistrate, Dr Singh, the Section 144 CrPC was promulgated with an aim to prevent breach of peace and large scale smuggling of essential commodities into Bangladesh by miscreants and anti-social elements. 

Following the order, no persons, excluding military, BSF, police and government officials on duty, shall carry twenty-four scheduled commodities within a distance of eight kilometres from the Indo-Bangladesh border in eight police stations in the district, from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. without prior permission of the appropriate authorities. These eight police stations are : Mathabhanga, Mekhliganj, Kuchlibari, Haldibari, Tufanganj, Dinhata, Sitai and Sitalkuchi. 

Twenty-four commodities described in Schedule-A in the order, were restricted for carrying. These are : rice and paddy, wheat and wheat products (both above 5-kgs), kerosene, sugar, mustard oil, coconut oil, fertiliser, textile goods, iron and steel, bidi leaves, tobacco, machine parts, baby food, cycle parts, salt, tea, tyre and tubes, dry batteries, petrol and diesel, raw jute, dal (pulses), cattle, cement and betel nuts. 

Following the order, markets and shops of that zone will not be allowed to transact business beyond 8 p.m. on any day. The restriction on assembly for haat or shopping purpose will remain in force from 8 p.m. till 6 a.m. in the morning in the following day. 

By the same order, a ban was also clamped on the grazing of cattle within 300 metres of the Indo-Bangladesh border. This is nothing but a bid to check cattle lifting by miscreants from the other side of the border and stop smuggling of cattle, Dr Singh said. 

In his order the district magistrate mentioned that the prohibitory order was promulgated following information that there was serious apprehension of breach of peace in the Indo-Bangladesh border areas of the district due to shortage of essential commodities caused by large scale smuggling into Bangladesh. []