Hundreds of money exchangers and traders in Nadia’s Gede staged a demonstration near the customs and immigration counter at the India-Bangladesh border for five hours on Saturday to protest against the Centre's decision to withhold tourist visas from Bangladeshi nationals who enter India on foot through the Gede border.

Demonstrators demanded that the Centre immediately resume issuing tourist visas to allow Bangladeshi nationals to enter India on foot through the 800-metre border. The practice stopped since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020.

Protesters said the Centre’s decision created a livelihood crisis for them.

Money exchangers had earlier threatened to block the Dhaka and Calcutta-bound Maitree Express trains at the Gede station on Saturday to draw the Centre’s attention to their demand. Such attempts were foiled by state police and RPF personnel.

Police stopped protesters from reaching the Gede railway station premises. Railway tracks were kept under vigil.

“Grievances may be genuine, but we can't allow disruption of the train service,” said an RPF official at Gede.

A money exchanger said: “Our business has been hit for over two years. Our survival is at stake. Around 3,000 tourists used to enter India on foot every day but no more with the suspension of visas at the Gede border. We used to give tourists our services (currency exchange) to earn our living. But the Centre robbed us of our livelihood.”

With the effect of the pandemic easing globally, all land ports across Bengal were opened by the Centre in September last year.

But the bar on issuing visas to Bangladeshi nationals coming to India on foot through Gede in Nadia and Mahadipur in Malda stayed.

“This has caused hardship to traders and money exchangers,” said Dinabandhu Mahaldar, who owns a money exchanging firm at Gede and is the president of the Gede Land Port Society, an outfit of traders and money exchangers.

Gede Land Port Society members said an appeal to external affairs minister S. Jaishankar to allow visas to Bangladeshi who walk in through Gede port met with no response. The Federation of Associations of Small Industries in India (FASII) has also written a similar appeal to junior external affairs minister Meenakshi Lekhi.

“But so far there has been no response to our pleas,” a money exchanger said, and added a similar protest was on in Bangladesh.