Maintenance of border pillars begins in Koshi Province

By Bishnu Prasad Pokharel,Itahari, Dec. 5; The Armed Police Force (APF) Nepal in Koshi Province has begun the maintenance and colouring of Nepal-India border pillars starting from Mechinagar and Bhadrapur municipalities. 

As per the understanding with the Indian officials, security officials of Nepali side have got the task to repair and colour odd-digit border pillars.  On Monday, the work began from the border pillar number 91/1 AA-55 located near Dashgaja of Mechinagar Muncipality-7.  

The number 2 Armed Police Force Nepal, Jhapa, has taken the lead in repairing the pillars.  The 5th Nepal-India Boundry Working Group meeting held in 2018 had decided to conduct repair and maintenance work of the pillars. 

Along Jhapa area, Nepal and India share 144.02 km border point. Of 995 small and big pillars standing in Jhapa, 317 pillars need to be repaired, according to Devraj Aryal, Superintendent of Police (SP) and Chief of the Armed Police Force, Jhapa of No. 2 Battalion. The government of Nepal had given authority to the APF for the pillar maintenance task on August 3, 2020. 

The even number of pillars would be repaired by the Indian side as per the understanding. Rabin Raj Karnajit, the spokesperson for the APF  No. 1 Brigade Office, Sunsari, said that the APF has to repair 484 pillars. Before this, Indian side had already repaired 344 pillars. In Jhapa, APF had to repair 317 pillars, 34 in Morang, and 133 in Sunsari.

Out of 484 border pillars, 199 border pillars will only be painted, 221 will undergo general maintenance, 59 will go through moderate repairment and only five pillars will be completely repaired.