District administration of Kishangunj district of Bihar, which also shares border with Jhapa, has agreed to return the encroached land to the Nepali owners in a bilateral meeting on Friday but the problem persists along Darjeeling. [break]
India has encroached land from Jyamirgadhi Village Development Committee (VDC) and Mechinagar Municipality in north-east Jhapa with Indian security persons exerting pressure on the landowners to change nationality.
"Our land currently lies on the Indian side of the border and the Indians repeatedly ask us to become Indian nationals," Kul Prasad Tiwari, whose land in Bhansakhola, Mechinagar-11 has been encroached, said.
The land owned by Nepalis for decades went into the Indian side after India unilaterally shifted border pillar number 92 and 93 in 1988. The residents of Bhansakhola are being allowed to use their land though the Indians frequently ask them to either vacate the land or change nationality.
But the locals of Jyamirgadhi are not allowed even to till their land with Indian security persons distributing the encroached land to Indian nationals.
The fact that the office of Department of Survey has not measured land encroached by India has made the locals further suspicious. Over 15 bighas of land belonging to Jetha Rai, Pradip Karki, Ishwari Rai and others of Kalikajhar, Jyamirgadhi-1 has been captured by Indians and they have been forced to till others´ land for their living.
Another 15 bighas of land of Kalika Tea Estate and Birendra Higher Secondary School has also been encroached.
Likewise, around five bighas of land from Jyamirgadhi-2 has also been encroached. Constituent Assembly Member Man Singh Rajbanshi, who was VDC Chairman of Jyamirgadhi at the time of encroachment, said that he has raised the issue in parliament on several occasions but no steps have been taken to address the issue.
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