Central team inspects Indo – Myanmar border pillar

Pothashang News Service: Imphal, July 25, 2018: A team of  ministries of Home Affairs, external affairs and Surveyor General of India on Wednesday visited Border Pillar No. 81 at Kwatha Khunou, Tengnoupal district for verification.

The team consists of Surveyor General of India, Lt. General Girish Kumar; joint secretary (BM)/MEA, Sripriya Ranganathan and joint secretary (NE)/MHA, A.V. Dharma Reddy.

Members of political parties CPI, BSP, NCP, Forward Block, Shiv Sena, MPP, RSD, JDU, JDS, Aam Aadmi Party and Congress took part in the border visit. Civil society organisation United Committee Manipur (UCM) and Information Centre for Hill Areas Manipur were also among them.

The officials also interacted with the locals of Kwatha Khunou, representative of political parties and members of civil society organizations of Manipur. The officials also expressed their considerations to look into the matter seriously.

Girish Kumar said based on our records the position of the border pillar is correct, but the villagers are saying that as per the historical records and tradition the position of the pillar is somewhere else. We will see the record and see through on what the villagers’ complaint, he added.

President of UCM, Sunil Karam said we have realised that the survey will not be a complete one. Our demand at present is to survey all the border pillars apart from border pillar no. 81.

The team told that they understand the sentiment of the people and will conduct a survey with Myanmar representatives using relevant tools and techniques within one month, he added.

We will consider all the stakeholders in the survey of all the border pillars, said Girish Kumar.