The West Champaran districts officials in Bihar said that the Nepal government has started construction of a helipad at a disputed location on the Indo-Nepal border near Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR) in West Champaran district.
At the same time, Indian officials in Rudraprayag district of Uttarakhand objected to Nepal authorities installing 360 degree CCTV cameras in no-man’s land between the borders of the country countries.
The discontent, simmering on the border, has been growing since Nepal decided to include certain parts of Uttarakhand in its new map inviting strong objections from India with New Delhi dismissing Kathmandu’s fresh territorial claims as untenable and without any historical evidence.
“To the best of our knowledge, construction of the helipad meant for small choppers started a few days back on the disputed area,” said Commandant Rajendra Bhardwaj of 21st SSB Battalion. The helipad is near completion at Narsahi village, a short distance from Thari border outpost of Sashatra Seema Bal (SSB) near VTR, 80 km from Bettiah, headquarters of West Champaran district, he said, adding that he would send a report to the headquarters soon.
In the western part of India-Nepal border in Uttarakhand’s Champawat district, the authorities on Thursday raised objection to the installation of omni-directional CCTV cameras by Nepalese personnel near the disputed land and asked Nepal officials to remove them, said Indian officials aware of the development.
District magistrate Champawat, Surendra Narayan Pandey, who attended the meet with Nepal officials on Tuesday, said, “The Nepalese side had installed CCTV cameras a few days ago at the border. When the meeting was held, the SSB from our side raised the issue before Nepal since omni-directional CCTV cameras pose an obvious risk of monitoring of Indian security agencies.”