From Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi: In a significant development, Nepal and India have agreed to set up a boundary working group at the surveyors-general level in order to settle boundary issues, including Susta and Kalapani, and maintain and renovate border pillars. The move will be formally declared during External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj’s visit to Kathmandu soon.
According to news report, the two countries recently exchanged a diplomatic note on setting up the boundary working group (BWG). It is likely that an announcement of the mechanism will be made during Swaraj’s visit later this month.
The mandate for the mechanism would be to seek an amicable technical solution of unsettled boundary at Susta, Kalapani and other places and immediate solution to border encroachment on both sides. The mandate would also be for erecting border pillars that have been missing since long, repairing, maintaining and renovating damaged border pillars, and clearing the no-man’s land of Dash Gaja of Nepal-India border so that encroachment does not recur.
The 28th meeting of the joint surveyors-general from Nepal and India had prepared 182 strip maps of Nepal-India boundary in 2007, excluding the controversial Susta (Nawalparasi) and Kalapani (Dharchula) sketches, and signed them subsequently, paving the way for higher authorities to ratify them. The joint surveyors-generals’ meeting also recommended a boundary working group be set up in order to achieve a permanent solution to border encroachment, claims and counter-claims made by both sides, erection of new border pillars and renovation of damaged ones.
It is estimated that 8,000 border pillars should be there along the Nepal-India border, of which 640 pillars are on or across rivers. On land, 1,240 border pillars were missing. Besides, around 2,500 pillars needed to be renovated and 400 new pillars needed to be erected, officials said.