A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member from Manipur said in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday that India was losing territory along the Manipur-Myanmar border due to faulty border pillars and demanded that the issue be taken up diplomatically with the neighbouring country.
Maharaja Sanajaoba Leishembaw raised the issue under ‘Special Mentions’ in the Upper House.
Mr. Leishembaw said a few months back officials from Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) came to Manipur to look into the matter pertaining to reported irregularities about border pillars on Indo-Myanmar border. He said Chief Minister N. Biren Singh has made a request to Home Minister Amit Shah to reexamine the contentious boundary issue. “Meanwhile, boundary fencing work along Indo-Myanmar border has been stopped by local people because the border pillars are shifting towards Manipur leading to India’s territorial loss. The discrepancies are along the new border pillars 64 to 68, 75 to 79, and 88 to 95,” he said.
He stated that though there were border disputes between Manipur and Myanmar even during the British Raj, after Independence a boundary agreement was arrived at in 1967 to settle the issue. “Still there are certain unsettled areas at the ground level ignored both by New Delhi and Naypyidaw. I would like the Government of India to revisit the issue and kindly take up the matter at diplomatic level with Myanmar for settling the border issue once and for all. Manipur has already lost large tracts of land to Myanmar,” he said.
