By Xinhua,
Kathmandu : Nepali Police said that 557 border pillars along Nepal-India borders in the five eastern districts were missing, local newspaper The Kathmandu Post reported on Monday.
According to latest records of eastern regional headquarters of Armed Police Force (APF), 1,108 border pillars in the border areas of Jhapa, Morang, Sunsari, Saptari and Siraha districts in eastern Nepal were found intact while records at the Survey Department showed that altogether 1,665 pillars were erected in the same areas in the past.
The APF began keeping records of the pillars after the establishment of APF’s Border Security Force two years ago.
“It’s mainly because of encroachment, erosion by various rivers and lack of awareness among locals about the border issue,” said the APF headquarters in Biratnagar, the headquarters of Morong district, some 240 km east of Nepali capital Kathmandu.
Deputy Inspector General of APF, Krishna Kumar Tamang, admitted lack of implementation of various issues pertaining to the border and pillars although authorities in both the countries agreed on the issues during meetings.
“Now, our border posts are collecting information on the border pillars with its photographs and are also sending it to the Home Ministry via our headquarters,” Tamang added.
Border expert and former Director General of Survey Department, Buddhi Narayan Shrestha, said that works of joint mechanisms at central and local level have been stalled since the last 25 years.
“The joint committee of technicians at the central level and border committees at the district level, which are supposed to discuss the various border related issues twice a year are ineffective for many years,” he said.
When asked, Director General of Survey Department, Rajaram Chhatkuli, said that such works could not be executed from the last two years after the Nepal-India joint committee of technicians was scrapped.