Nepal forms committee to tackle border dispute with China in Humla

Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has reportedly established a committee to tackle the border dispute with China in the Himalayan district of Humla, according to an ANI report. After having a brief standoff with India, the southeast Asian country embroiled in a boundary dispute with the People’s Republic of China in a remote Humla district, close to the Nepal-Tibet border. The border dispute between Nepal and China emerged after China unilaterally constructed 11 cemented buildings in the Nepali territory, which the latter contested. 

China has reportedly encroached lands in the Humla district of Nepal, ANI reports, which was earlier dismissed by the former KP Sharma Oli government. The country has now formed a five-member team on Wednesday headed by the Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Home Affairs. The team, with senior officials from different government agencies and boundary experts on it, is expected to take stock of the border situation with China. The committee will visit the disputed area and will report back to the government, Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Gyanendra Bahadur Karki reportedly informed. 

"A committee comprising Department of Survey, Nepal Police, Armed Police, and Border Experts will be formed under the coordination of Home Ministry Joint Secretary to study the problems in the border area in Humla district,” Law Minister Gyanendra Bahadur Karki was quoted saying by ANI, as he announced the decision of council of ministers. "It should be noted that China had encroached on Nepali land and built nine buildings in Humla last year," he added.

PRC constructed infrastructure

Jeevan Bahadur Shai, a provincial lawmaker of Nepali Congress last year had told reporters that China has encroached on large swathes of land in the Humla district. The PRC had constructed infrastructure on the Nepalese terrain, in Lampcha village (Namkha rural Municipality), bordering Tibet. At the time of former Oli administration, Nepal’s Ministry of External Affairs had denied the reports even when the Nepalese resentment and protests were held wherein the locals chanted slogans: “Stop Chinese Expansionism” as tensions flared between two territories over border disputes and encroachments. Sino-Nepal border has been denoted as a ‘controlled border system’ via an agreement reached in 1960, that led to border treaty of 1961 that demarcation areas between Nepal and China.