Following a two-week long inspection of the border area carried out by a joint team of the Department of Land Reform and Management (DLRM) and its Indian counterpart based in Darjeeling, the former reported that altogether 45 border pillars along the border area between eastern Manebhanjyan and Jirmale have gone missing.
According to DLRM, three big boundary pillars, 10 subsidiary pillars and 21 minor pillars have gone missing in the area. Likewise, three reference pillars used for restoring the missing ones have also disappeared from the border area.
The records at DLRM show that there were altogether 107 boundary pillars including 5 big ones, 43 subsidiaries and 45 minor pillars in the area between eastern Manebhanjyan and Jirmale.
Locals alleged that the boundary pillars have gone missing as the authorities concerned did not carry out frequent enough monitoring.
Purna Prasad Poudel, a member of the joint monitoring team, said there are now 62 border pillars remaining and these too are in a sorry state. “There is a desperate need for replacing the old pillars with new ones,” he said.
Included in the joint monitoring team from the Nepali side were Punya Prasad Poudel and Manoj Prasad Singh of DLRM and Paras Adhikari, an engineer at the Urban Development and Housing Division (UDHD) in Ilam, while Sajalar Laleta and Rudra Chhetri of the Land Reform and Management office in Darjeeling were from the Indian side. A separate team of the Armed Police Force and the Indian Border Security Force (IBSF) had accompanied the monitoring team.
The monitoring came following an agreement reached between high-level officials of Nepal and India on May 30 at Pashupatinagar. The inspection, which kicked off May 31, concluded on Monday.
Meanwhile, locals residing along the Indo-Nepal border area complained to the monitoring team that the IBSF was giving them trouble repeatedly.
Poudel said the monitoring was conducted to find out the reality along the Indo-Nepal border area in the district. “In a second phase, we are going to hold discussions with locals before erecting new pillars,” he said.
UDHD informed that the new pillars will be erected in place of the missing ones after estimating the costs. “We learnt that the Indian side has already decided to erect pillars in no man´s land without any collaboration with Nepal,” said an UDHA official speaking on condition of anonymity.
Ilam district shares an approximately 90 km border with India from Jhapa to Panchtar. The governments of Nepal and India carried out several inspections along the border area in the past to resolve the border issue but matters remain unresolved.
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