The government has deployed a considerable number of security personnel along Nepal-India border, but despite such heavy deployment of armed forces the border units remain technically weak.
This lapse has time and again proven costly.At a time when even shopping malls have been installing sophisticated equipments for security, the government has failed to do the same at the border areas.
"Security at the border is a matter of great sensitivity," says Jhapa police Chief S.P Ravindranath Regmi. "At least the personnel should be provided with metal detectors and walk-through gates that are basic requirements."
In lack of these equipment, maintaining security in these regions has become a difficult job.
Three years ago, four youths were arrested for possessing 7.65 KF American pistol in Fidim of Panchthar. They confessed to have smuggled the weapon through the Kakarvitta entry point after buying it from a dealer at Siliguri in India for Indian rupees 50,000.
The eastern side of Jhapa district, which has been marked as a region of strategic importance, shares almost a hundred kilometer-long border with India.
According to the police sources, Siliguri has been classified as a region with a high volume of trade in illegal weapons. Indian criminals are said to openly deal in illegal weapons in Naxalbadi, Khoribari and Panitanki.
The police have seized countless small weaponries, explosives, drugs, foreign currencies and other illegal items from the border areas.
During the insurgency period, the government had mobilized a team of combined security forces. Among them, only the Nepal Army was able to use metal detectors to thwart the rebels from smuggling weapons into the country.
But today, the security at the border is neither properly managed nor the security personnel there have access to advanced technology.
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