Border residents root for talks, amity
LUCKNOW: The India-Nepal border row has not dulled the desire for amity among residents on both sides of the boundary in Uttar Pradesh.
This mood for harmony is reflected in Sonuali, a town on the Uttar Pradesh-Nepal border in Maharajganj district where members of the city traders’ organization have passed a resolution, pledging to work for cordial relations between the citizens of both the countries in spite of the dispute over Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura.
“The Indian and Nepal governments should hold talks to resolve the dispute amicably. We have centuries old cultural and economic ties with Nepal. The people of Nepal also wish to carry on with the old bond,” said Ajay Singh, president of the traders’ organisation.
On Thursday, the upper house of Nepal’s parliament passed a constitutional amendment to give legal backing to a new map that depicts the Kalapani region as part of Nepalese territory.
“Yet, we believe the government of both the countries will resolve the dispute,” says Sudhir Tripathi, a representative of Sonauli nagar panchayat.
The border between the two countries was sealed after the central government announced the Covid-19 lockdown on March 25. Security personnel have intensified patrolling on the 700kilometre frontier that passes through seven UP districts of Maharajganj, Siddharthnagar, Balrampur, Shravasti, Bahraich, Lakhimpur Kheri and Pilibhit. Officers of the Sashashtra Seema Bal (SSB), district police and Nepal Border police were holding regular meetings as well as joint patrolling on the border, said a state home department officer.
The Nepalese Gorkhas serving in the Indian Army, who had gone to their native villages in Nepal on leave but could not return due to the lockdown, have started coming back to their units. Health teams deputed on the border screened the soldiers before they were allowed to enter UP, said a senior police officer.
Sandeep Lamichhane, a Nepalese cricketer who plays for Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League, arrived on the border near Sonauli to receive his mother and sister. Local people assembled near the no- man’s land to greet him, said Kripa Shankar Madhesiya, a Sonauli resident.
“This clearly shows the affinity between the people of both the countries,” he says.
Before the lockdown, people settled in villages and towns nearby used to cross the porous border with ease for daily work as there was no restriction on the movement of people. The lockdown hit the daily life and businesses of people in UP as well as Nepal, said Manohar Gupta, a local businessman.
Before the lockdown, the Nepalese people settled in villages on the border used to visit the markets in Maharajganj, Siddharthnagar, Lakhimpur and Bahraich to purchase essential items.
Owing to the Covid curbs, the prices of edible items and medicines have skyrocketed in Nepal and people are demanding easing of restrictions, he said.
Ramchandra Yadav, gram pradhan of Sirha village near the international border, said, “We are in regular touch with the Nepalese citizen across the border. Although the political parties in Nepal voted unanimously to endorse the new political map, some organisations have also launched a movement on the Kalapani issue. A majority of the Nepalese want the border row to be resolved in a harmonious and friendly atmosphere.”
India-Nepal Friendship Society (Nepal unit) president Shant Kumar Sharma, who is based in Nepal’s Belahiya town, and its UP unit head Anil Kumar Gupta, who is based in Gorakhpur, said, “The society has passed a unanimous resolution demanding dialogue between the governments of the two countries on the border issue.”
“Ties between India and Nepal are bound by ‘roti- beti’. Any misunderstanding should be resolved on priority,” Anil Kumar Gupta said.
Chandra Prakash Shrestha, a resident of Nepal and president of Siddharth Hotel Association, said people of both the countries wished to live in peace.
“The Indian and Nepalese economies are interdependent. After the Indian government announced Unlock-1, the governments of both the countries should ease restrictions to give boost to the respective economies,” he said.