Home Secretary-level meeting of Nepal and India is scheduled to be held in Delhi on Tuesday. The meeting is going to be held after 9 years. The Nepali team led by Home Secretary Gokarnamani Duwadi is preparing to leave for Delhi on Monday.

Among the mechanisms at different levels between the two countries, there is also a mechanism led by the Home Secretary. This meeting is going to be held to discuss and cooperate between the high officials of the two countries to control activities such as cross-border crime, human trafficking, drug trade, smuggling, and illegal entry of citizens of third countries. The secretary-level meeting, which was supposed to be held every year, could not be held in Delhi in 2016. Spokesperson of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Joint Secretary Ramchandra Tiwari said that the meeting will focus on issues such as border security, information exchange, and common problems of natural disasters.

Nepal Police, Armed Police and Inspector General of National Investigation along with Joint Secretaries of Ministry of Home Affairs, Foreign Affairs and Law will be in the team from Nepal. Likewise, it is said that the Director General of the Department of Surveyors and the Department of Immigration will also be in the team led by the Home Secretary. A joint secretary level meeting of the home of both countries was held in Pokhara last March. 

It is understood that the Home Secretary-level meeting will not focus on resolving the border dispute between the two countries. However, it is said that there will be a discussion on encroachment on the border, maintenance of border pillars, physical structures built in the border area, etc. Flooding in Nepal has become a major issue due to various roads and other structures built by India in the border area. Similarly, there are important issues raised by the Nepali side, such as border encroachment by Indian citizens at various places, drug dealing and human trafficking. 

The security challenges that the Indian side may face in India from the Nepali border area, the illegal entry of third country nationals will be raised in every meeting, so it is certain that it will get priority in this meeting as well. Due to the open border, the illegal arms trade, the criminals of one country hiding in another country will also become issues of the meeting. 

After the home secretary level meeting on July 22, the meeting of the 'Boundary Working Group' is also scheduled to be held in Delhi. The meeting is being held on July 12 (July 27). It is said that the meeting of the group, which is responsible for field work in the border areas of the two countries, will focus on issues including demarcation. It is mentioned that there will be more discussions on construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of border posts. The demarcation between the two countries has been finalized except for the disputed areas of Susta and Kalapani. Susta and Kalapani is a topic that has been in dispute for many years, saying that it will be resolved at the political level. It is said that the meeting of the 'Boundary Working Group' will be more focused on the necessary technical works in other areas. 

Bilateral border mechanism is meeting after 6 years. There will be a discussion on various issues related to the border seen during this period from both sides. A meeting of the mechanism was held in Dehradun, India in August 2019. It was agreed at that time that the technical works to be managed in the border area would be completed by the end of 2022. However, due to the covid epidemic and others, the work in the border area could not progress. The Nepal side had been making continuous diplomatic efforts to hold a meeting of the mechanism. It has been confirmed that the meeting will be held after India gave time for the end of July. 

The 'Boundary Working Group' meeting will be led by Prakash Joshi, Director General of Survey Department on behalf of Nepal. It will include foreign, land, home, and law officials. After going to Delhi as a member of the Home Secretary-led team, the Director General of Surveyors Department will reach Delhi as the team leader. On behalf of India, Hitesh Kumar, Head of Survey Department of India, will lead the meeting.