Dispatchtimes.com
October 17, 2015
The Madhes-based political parties have been protesting in the South Nepali Terai plains along the Nepal-India border and blockading major entry points since last two months. But India sees no merit in Nepal’s complaints that it was being “choked” and deprived of essential supplies.
Thapa is scheduled to meet External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar. The home ministry has been repeatedly getting inputs on anti-India activities like movement of Jehadi elements and smuggling of fake Indian currency notes and narcotics along the Nepal border.
In this Wednesday, October, 14, 2015 photo, trucks stand stranded at Birganj, a town on the border with India, Nepal.
In this context, Nepal Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli and Thapa have already met Indian ambassador Ranjit Rae and sought Indian cooperation in this respect.
Nepal said Thursday one of its newly appointed deputy premiers, Kamal Thapa, was invited to go to New Delhi on Saturday for talks to resolve the stalemate.
To a question, Swarup stressed that the long queues of freight trucks waiting to cross over to Nepal from India were due to “disruption on the Nepalese side of the border”.
“As far as I know, today the Chinese side through this border has transferred supply of aid goods and materials”, she said without specifying the amount of supplies delivered.
Of the nine crossing points that are capable of crossing commercial cargo, five-six have been in constantly in use throughout, which dispels any kind of theory that there was blockaded, he said.
The border crossing at Jilong, a county in southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, was badly damaged in the massive earthquake in April.
“There are security concerns”, said Indrajit Bose, a senior company official, explaining why the trucks had not crossed the border.
“By 12 noon, 2,500 trucks are still queued up, mainly at Raxaul, where the number is between 1,500-2,000, and Sanauli where number is approximately 750”, he added. Some have been waiting on the Indian side for 45 days.
