By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Nov. 25: The Chief Advisor to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has said that the present government and the governing Nepal Communist Party would use all possible channels in support of Nepal’s claim to the Kalapani area, which includes, in his terminology, Limpiyadhura, Lipulek and Kalapani.
Speaking with journalists for Gorkhapatra Sambad, a weekly dialogue held in the Gorkhapatra Corporation, the Chief Advisor, Bishnu Rimal, informed of the initiatives the government had taken since the issue came up for heated debates in the media.
The border dispute surfaced and received publicity after India issued its political map following its administrative division of Ladakh and Jammu Kashmir, Rimal said.
“There had been border disputes between India and Nepal in various places,” he said. “In the course of resolving them, to say that in the language of official percentage, we have resolved 98 percent of the disputes. Only 2 percent of the disputes … remain to be resolved because talks between the two countries have not reached the final stage regarding these places. Of this percentage, the issue that has come to the fore now is the Kalapani area.”
Rimal informed that Nepal and India had opened a formal channel of dialogue on the dispute, starting with the exchange of information between their foreign ministries.
“Our Ambassador based in Delhi has expressed our concern at the Indian External Affairs Ministry. Even here, we invited the Indian Ambassador to the Foreign Ministry, told him about our claim and gave him a diplomatic note, in writing, with reasons behind the claim of Nepal government to the territory. They have cordially accepted the note,” he said.
Then, he said, there were permanent mechanisms of foreign secretaries and ministers.
“And, when needed, going above these levels, a political decision can be made to hold the dialogue at the level of the Prime Minister. That means the whole nation will have stood as one on the issue. So, all our fronts are open. Besides these, we have opened informal channels as well.”
Evidences and documents from the time of Sugauli Treaty of 1816 AD would support Nepal’s claim of land east of the Kali river, that is, the Mahakali river, which originated from Limpiyadhura, now written as Kali, in place of Kutiyangdi river of the past, in the Indian map, he said. “The agreement back then was for us not to claim the territory west of the Kali river.”
Rimal said the Prime Minister had held an all-party meeting of stakeholders to share this stand on the issue.
“They asked the Prime Minister to move ahead on that basis, saying that he had taken a correct stand and that the entire nation was one on his move,” Rimal said. “For the first time, Nepal had stood in one place on the issue, clearly on the same page, about its land. “
It would be good for all to keep standing steadfast on the issue and ask the government to move ahead by way of diplomatic and other channels, he said, adding, however, the opposition leader was using the border dispute as a plank to win the by-polls.
“I feel the opposition should not be kidding on the matter.”
Earlier, on Saturday secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Shankar Das Bairagi said that the government had sent a letter to the government of India requesting the latter for a high level talk clearly claiming Lipulek, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura as Nepal’s territory.
“We have sent formal letter on the issue and waiting for the response from India. We are making communication from our side,” Bairagi told the Gorkhapatra, the sister daily of this publication.
“Nepal is raising the issue for time and again. This time, we are expecting the response of India and waiting for that,” he said.
He said that the government was all prepared to conduct high-level talk with India soon after India would response to our proposal.
India had published its new country map by including 372 square meter of Nepali land in Kalapani, Limpiyadhura and Lipulek on November 2.
After all side protest regarding the encroachment of Nepali land, India had given the response that it had not made any changes in the map towards Nepal’s border.
Earlier, by issuing a press statement, Ministry of Foreign Affairs had claimed Kalapani, Limpiyadhura and Lupulek as Nepal Territory and highlighting the need of diplomatic talks to resolve if there are any problems in the boarder issue.
However, no formal letter was written to India regarding the issue of Nepali land encroached by India in the past.
At the mean time the Survey and Boarder Monitoring Directorate of Nepal Army established after he direction of the government has started collecting documents since Sugauli Treaty.
The government has given this responsibility to Nepal Army to gather various facts ad evidences to use as per its requirements.
The main objective of the directorate is to protect international boarder and treaties related documents,” said Bigyan Dev Pandey, spokesperson of Nepal Army.
A well-equipped office based on high technology will be prepared to keep related documents safe, he said.
Similarly, the directorate of Nepal Army will make the provision to participate in high level committee formed to study, monitoring and regulation boarder.
Currently, the directorate has started collecting documents and evidences regarding Limpiyadhura, Lipu Lek and Kalapani in coordination with experts, Pandey said.
The directorate was established as per the proposal of Ministry of Defense which was also included in the Policy and Programmes of the government of the fiscal year 2019/20.
There is the provision of establishing separate divisions including Survey Division, Border Research and Coordination Division and Treaties and Agreement Study and Research Division.