919 locals from Kanchanpur sign a petition requesting to reopen Belauri Customs Office 

Kanchanpur: A petition has been submitted to the Customs Department and the District Administration Office Kanchanpur with the signatures of 919 people to reopen the closed custom office at Belauri in Kanchanpur.

Belauri Customs Office has been locked for 6 months, but concerned authorities are silent, and citizens of Belauri have demanded that the closed customs office be reopened. The petition with the signatures collected from citizens has been sent to the Chief District Officer of Kanchanpur Gopal Prasad Aryal and the Director General of the Customs Department on Wednesday.

On understanding the request, the Chief District Officer Aryal immediately telephoned the relevant concerned agencies and directed the necessary procedures to re-open Belauri customs and staff management. He said that since the Belauri customs office has not been in operation for a long time, the possibility of theft should be minimized when it reopens, and the Director General of the Customs Department should open the customs office immediately. He said that he is taking the necessary action and coordinating with others and will try for the operation to resume as soon as possible.

He explained that the district administration office is of the opinion that whatever structures are there in the district, they should be operated in the most effective manner and regularity should be given so that service delivery to the citizens can be facilitated.

Keshavraj Joshi, a social worker intellectual of Belauri, said that the Belauri main customs post, which was established as the only main customs in the Far West in 1917, could not continue as the main customs after the headquarters was moved in the year 2019.

He said that the checkpoint was still in existence as a small customs office. Then with the change in the prevailing principle of customs export and import, an animal quarantine check post was also established along with customs to allow the import and export of cattle, and it has been operating until now.

"Though dozens of small customs offices in Kanchanpur and Kailali were displaced during the armed conflict, the Belauri customs office had been restored," he said.'

On the Nepal side, Belauri customs owns about 3 bigha 3 katta 13 dhur of land, and a two-story and 2 one-story concrete buildings, there is no forest and river between Nepal and India.  There is also a century-old dilapidated building of the customs office.

Mevaram Chaudhary, a social activist of Belauri, says that it is irresponsible of the leaders and the state to remain in a state of neglect instead of upgrading Belauri Customs, which has economic, touristic, and historical importance. The meeting of the high-level delegation of the customs departments of both Nepal and India held in Kathmandu in December 2075 also decided to study the feasibility of establishing and upgrading border customs at five border points across the country, including Belauri in Kanchanpur.

It seems that establishing the Belauri-Khajuria customs border as a bilateral customs border with India will help major economic, commercial, and tourism activities and development for the Far Western Province. Tharu Kalyankarini Sabha Kanchanpur President Sunita Chaudhary is of the opinion that it is not appropriate to keep the lock hanging on the Belauri customs office which has a lot of potential.