Kathmandu, September 26:

The home-secretary level Indo-Nepal meeting today agreed to beef up the border security arrangement considering the Constituent Assembly election here. A joint team, which is yet to be formed, would work out a model of security strategies to be exchanged between the two countries.

“We have agreed to make security arrangements stricter along the border and a joint team would work out a security model to be exchanged at a diplomatic level between the two countries,” said Umesh Mainali, Secretary of Home Affairs after the two-day meeting was over. The composition of the joint team is yet to be decided. After extensively taking stock of current security arrangements, the meeting also agreed to increase “vigilance from both the sides along the border. The form of strategy for increasing vigilance however, would be decided in future.

“We welcome the historical process that is going on in Nepal; for the forthcoming CA election, we assure from our side that whatever is required by the government of Nepal will be provided,” said Madhukar Gupta, the Indian Home Secretary. He said the meeting focused on controlling criminal and anti-social elements along the open border. “We discussed ways to establish closer coordination between the SSB (Seema Surakcha Bal) of India and the Nepal Police along the border so that unwanted cross border activities could be continuously

shared between the officers concerned,” Gupta said.

He added that both the police organisations would be meeting each other to discuss future security strategies on a “greater detail to work out the modalities, which is called a standard operation procedure” to be able to cooperate and ensure that coordination was really effective.

The meeting also discussed the Kapilvastu mayhem, as such incidents, according to Indian and Nepali delegations, will have adverse impact on both sides because not only the criminal elements, but also those displaced flee across the border. The meeting also discussed enhancing the district-level coordination mechanism to ensure effective information sharing system and controlling cross-border crime.

Meanwhile, Ministry of Home Affairs has recently decided to form a Seema Suraksha Prahari, a separate wing of the Nepal Police with an aim to enhance security along the border. The home-secretary level meeting is an annual event, which this time is also a follow-up of a meeting of the joint working group on border management that was held in New Delhi through July 12-13. The annual meeting, which normally discusses cross-border crimes, including human trafficking, and drug trade, has not been held since 2005. Senior police officers, an official from Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other senior Home Ministry officials attended the meeting.