Dang border encroachment report 'fabricated'

Dang border encroachment report 'fabricated'

REPUBLICA KATHMANDU, June 6: An internal report of the Home Ministry prepared after a field visit to Dang district has concluded that the issue of border encroachment by Indian authorities was ´fabricated.´ The report arrived at the conclusion as the victims allegedly displaced from bordering villages due to excesses of Indian border force told the study team that they did not receive any threats or harassment from the Indian side. Some 2,000 people from the bordering Rajpur, Koilabas, Bela and Gobardiha villages in the district had fled their villages and started to living in the Kari community forest adjoining the East-West Highway in Dang district a few days ago due to alleged harassment from the India´s border security force -- Seema Suraksha Bal (SSB). According to the report, the allegedly displaced people have been living in the area for the past 43 years, but they do not have land ownership certificates yet. The report said that some vested groups had provoked the villagers into fleeing their homes under the pretext of SSB´s excesses, promising the villagers help for acquiring land ownership certificates. The study team comprising Chief District Officer (CDO) of Dang, local police chief and human rights activists and journalists also did not find any border pillars removed from the areas. Meanwhile, Home Secretary Gobinda Kusum said there was no dispute of land encroachment with India in Dang district. Speaking at a parliamentary committee meeting on Friday, Secretary Kusum admitted that there was a need for increasing the number of security personnel in the border regions to curb cross-border criminal activities. source: http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=5923