Kathmandu, December 27:

Lawmakers at the parliamentary International Relations Committee today asked the government to make clear its position on the reported Indian encroachment in Susta area of Nawalparasi district.

They said the government should immediately make it clear to the people whether the reports of encroachment were genuine or not.

Maoist lawmaker Dinanath Sharma said the government should clear the doubts over the issue. “Merely blaming our neighbour is not the solution,” Sharma said at a meeting of the committee today.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Sahana Pradhan who was summoned by the committee, however, said the issue should be taken up as an agenda in the seven-party meeting. Since the government functions on the basis of seven-party consensus, she suggested the encroachment issue be discussed in the seven-party meeting. “The government alone cannot do anything,” she said.

Minister Pradhan also informed the committee that she has already put up the issue in the cabinet. “I have also drawn the attention of the Prime Minister,” she added.

NC lawmaker and former foreign minister Chakra Prasad Bastola who chaired today’s meeting asked the government to clarify on what exactly has happened in Susta.