Parsa, Jan21, 2019
A team of the Survey Department has arrived in Birgunj today to investigate into the border dispute that has surfaced at Chhapkaiya of Birgunj Metropolitan City-1.
The dispute is related to the sub-pillar of the Pillar Number 392, the border marker that demarcates the Nepal-India border. According to locals of Chhapkaiya, more than 50 bighas of Nepali territory has gone on the Indian side as the sub-pillar was constructed at a wrong location. They have protested the construction of the sub-pillar at its present location and want it to be installed at its previous location.
The Nepal-India joint border task force is currently carrying out the repair and restoration of the dilapidated and missing border markers along the Nepal-India border here.
The investigation team is led by Directors of the Survey Department, Damodar Dhakal, and Anil Marasi.
The team has started surveying the place where the sub-pillar of the Pillar No 392 at Bhakuwa is to be installed.
Director Dhakal said that there is a dispute regarding the positioning of four out of the 10 sub-pillars of the Pillar No 392 at Bhakuwa of Chhapkaiya. He said whether the sub-pillars that are going to be installed are at the right location or not would be known only after measurements using the LGPS machine.
He stated that a strip map has been prepared by the governments of both Nepal and India considering the then river to be the border between the two countries on the basis of the agreement signed in 1816 AD with the then British colonial government.
Dhakal said the border is being demarcated using LGPS machine taking the course of the river in 1816 as the original border, adding that it will take three days to determine whether the place where the border sub-pillars are going to be constructed was correct or not only after carrying out the survey using the LGPS machine. Only then can the dispute regarding the border at Chhapkaiya can be ascertained, he added.
Stating it has been seen that registered Nepali territory has gone on the Indian side and vice-versa while determining the border on the basis of strip map, Director Dhakal said the team would submit a report to the government regarding the details of the Nepali land going to the India side and vice-versa. He also stated that the Government of Nepal will give some sort of compensation to the registered Nepali landowners whose land has gone on the India side while demarcating the border.
