By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS
Kathmandu : Nepal’s MPs Friday came down heavily on India, accusing the neighbouring country of lying about its intention to build a highway along the Indo-Nepal border, and asked Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s government to form a committee to visit the Terai plains and investigate what was happening.
The furore comes a day after the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu issued a statement, saying the construction of such a highway, far from being implemented, was not even “on the drawing board”.
The first protests started in Nepal after a report in the Indian media that said an 1,800 km east-west highway would be built in the Terai plains on the Indian side of the border to improve road links during monsoon.
Nepal’s parliamentary committee for natural resources said the construction of such a highway was liable to inundate Nepal’s border villages, which lay at a lower level, and could also impact the environment.
The team of MPs also asked Foreign Minister Sahana Pradhan to ask India for clarifications.
Pradhan met Indian Ambassador to Nepal, Shiv Shankar Mukherjee, Tuesday to convey the concern.
On Thursday, the Indian embassy issued a sternly worded statement, denying media reports about the highway, saying the “inflammatory and motivated comments” had “no basis in fact”.
Reacting to the snub, the parliamentary committee Friday flayed the Indian government, saying the denial was untrue.
The committee, which had called Pradhan to brief them, said that in the past too New Delhi had lied about contentious constructions along the Indo-Nepal border.
Prakash Jwala, an MP from the second largest party in the government, the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist, alleged that builders were carting away tonnes of gravel, sand and other building material from Nepal’s frontier districts of Saptari, Udaypur, Rautahat, Parsa and Bara, which indicated that a massive construction project was in the offing.
Hari Roka, a new MP nominated by the Maoists and a research scholar from New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, said that in the past too, India had built 26 barrages and dams in the border area unilaterally and each time when asked about it, had denied putting up any new structure.
Maoist MP Lokendra Bista, who had created a furore in parliament earlier when his bodyguards were found trying to carry guns inside the house, said the construction of such a highway would be a blow to Nepal’s sovereignty and should be checked.
Following the committee’s recommendation, the government is likely to form a probe team that will be sent to the Terai on inspection.
The next meeting of the committee, scheduled for Sunday, is likely to see more fireworks against India.
Interestingly, while Nepal is objecting to the reportedly proposed highway in India, it has not said anything about China, its northern neighbour, building a highway right up to the Everest base camp, an ecologically fragile region.
With Beijing to host the Olympics in 2008, China has announced its plan to take the Olympic torch rally to the summit of the highest peak in the world.
To enable a direct telecast of the march, it has ambitious plans to install communication equipment up among the mountains.
Though the Everest is Nepal’s pride, the government of Girija Prasad Koirala however has remained silent about the Chinese projects, all of which have been carried out without consulting or informing Nepal.