New Delhi: The government Wednesday said there was no border dispute between India and Myanmar and the demarcation of nine pillars was being worked out in a complete understanding with the neighbouring country.
Rejecting reports about border dispute and destroying of pillars in the Manipur region as false, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said a high-level central team has already visited the spot and reported that there is no dispute on the issue.
Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha, he said the Indo-Myanmar boundary was 1,472 km long, out of which 171 km is to be demarcated through a boundary mechanism which both the countries have established.
He said there were some nine border pillars which are to be identified and put on the ground.
“We don’t have a border dispute, we have an agreement. We have a complete understanding. It is only the demarcation of the pillars, total nine in numbers, that is to be settled,” he told the members.
Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu also had a word of caution on the issue, saying “This is something connected with our relations with the neighbour also, please keep that in mind.”
Rijiju termed the issue as “very sensitive” as it concerned neighbouring countries and said some news reports have created an undesirable situation in the state of Manipur.
“The report which we have carefully seen and the official team from the Home Ministry along with officials from External Affairs Minister as well as Survey General of India had visited the spot and found that the report that created tension was false.
“That is why I want to assure the members that on Border pillar 81 and border pillar 82, there are some issues regarding the subsidiary pillars, but the primary pillars, which our joint official team visited, was found to be okay and there is no problem on ground as such,” he said.
In his written reply, he said the Indo-Myanmar boundary has been settled as per the provision of the India-Myanmar Boundary agreement, 1967, but the ground demarcation work, including that of nine unsettled boundary pillars along the border in the Manipur sector, remains to be completed.
He said India and Myanmar hold regular dialogue on issues related to boundary demarcation and border management, through regular institutionalised mechanisms like joint boundary working group meetings, foreign office consultation, national level meetings as well as at the level of heads of survey department, where issues related to boundary demarcation, joint survey and inspection and maintenance of boundary pillars are discussed.
“Work pertaining to joint survey, inspection and maintenance of boundary pillars is regularly carried out by the two survey departments,” he said in his written reply.
