Create settlements in border areas, says Minister Aryal

Kathmandu, Mar 17

Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation Padma Kumari Aryal has pointed towards the need to create settlements at the border areas to save Nepali land across the Nepal-India border.

“We have found from a study that some of the land which was historically ours is now in India,” she said while talking to a delegation from Kanchanpur district that came to the capital to submit an appeal about investigating the strip map of Kalilai and Kanchanpur.

The delegation, including Minister for Water Supply Bina Magar, chair of Women and Social Committee at the Parliament, lawmakers Dipak Prakash Bhatta, Nara Bahadur Dhami and Bina Budhathoki, local representatives and local people, met Minister Aryal and submitted the appeal.

The delegation said that a strip map prepared by a joint survey team of Nepal and India had marked the border in a way that hundreds of hectare of Nepali land had gone to India. It demanded that a team of federal parliamentarians should go to the location to look into the issue.

Accepting the appeal, Minister Aryal suggested creating settlements along the border.

“Develop a plan to create settlement at the border. Coordinate among the local bodies and develop villages to occupy our land,” she said.

She also suggested building settlements of the landless people in those areas.

According to her, Nepali land is being encroached since there is no one to protect it. At the same time, stakeholders should continuously create awareness about the protection of the land of the country.

She assured that the government would look into the issue, study the documents and repeat the mapping process for another time.

Director General at the Department of Survey Prakash Joshi said that the department was checking the border pillars in Kanchanpur district, but the work was halted due to dispute at some locations.

The delegation demanded cancellation of  the strip-map prepared without the participation of people and people’s representatives, review the situation in the field, and find out the culprits and punish them.

Likewise, it also asked to reinstate pillars no. 200 and 195 at their previous original locations, find out the lost pillars, get back the land that belonged to the Nepali citizens and establish security post for the border security at a distance of every 2 kilometres.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 18 March 2020.