NEW DELHI, INDIA: The meeting of the Nepal-India Joint Level Technical Committee on Boundary that concluded here on Wednesday (19 Dec) prepared an official and scientific map of the Nepal-India border, except for the disputed areas of Susta and Kalapani.
Officials from both countries signed the border map Wednesday night. There was no agreement over the disputed territory at Susta of Nawalparasi district owing to the rigid stances of both sides, while the issue of Kalapani was not taken up for discussion. India's official stance on Susta has been that there has been no encroachment of land by India there.
However, a source said Indian officials hinted during the meeting that India may have encroached land at Susta, but preferred to keep the issue unresolved stating that evidence was required to establish encroachment.
Nepal's border experts have been saying that India has encroached 14,000 hectares of land at Susta. Similarly, India has allegedly been occupying 372 square kilometres of land at Kalapani since the India-China war in 1962.
A source said that since Kalapani is an issue of Nepal and India as well as China, it would be resolved by a meeting of representatives of the three countries.
The Nepal-India border map will be made public after plenipotentiaries of the two countries sign it. The map will officially mark the territorial limits of the two neighbouring countries. Thus far, there has been no official map of the Nepal-India border.
"The officials signed 182 maps," said Director of India's Foreign Ministry (North) C Gururaj Rao. "We have completed 97% work on border demarcation."
After the meeting failed to resolve the Susta issue, it agreed to recommend to the governments of Nepal and India that another committACee comprising the chiefs of Departments of Survey of the two countries be formed to look into the issue.
The Nepali team at the meeting was led by chief of Nepal's Department of Survey Toyanath Baral while the Indian team was led by Surveyor General M Gopal Rao.
Local committees will now be set up to regulate the border on the basis of the border map. The local committees will be led in Nepal by the Chief District Officers concerned, while the committees in India will be led by the District Magistrates concerned. (By GOPAL KHANAL/ The Kathmandu Post/ ANN)