Border with India needs regulation: Nepalese Maoist leader

Mumbai, Jan 13 (PTI) Top Nepalese Maoist leaderBaburam Bhattarai today called for a new treaty to regulatethe porous border between India and the Himalayan nation.

"Nepal has an open border with India from three sidesand that is creating problems for us. We are not trying tobecome hostile, but saying lets have another treaty toregulate the border," Bhattarai told reporters here.

Bhattarai, who is here for two days, would address the3rd Anuradha Ghandy Memorial Lecture at K C College tomorrow.

India and Nepal share 1,800 km of open border that iscurrently governed by a treaty signed in 1950.

"The Indian side also complains about security issuesdue to the open border and Nepal''s economy too gets affectedwith one-third of it business being illegal (due to lack ofregulations at the border)," Bhattarai said.

Bhattarai, the second-in-command in Maoist leadershipthere, made it clear that they "do not want to close theborder but only regulate it".

On Indo-Nepal ties, he said his party (CPN-Maoist)wants to continue "natural" ties with the neighbour. "We haveno interest in spoiling relations with India. We want to havenatural ties. Many Nepali people work here and also Indianpilgrims go to Nepal."

Bhattarai sought to distance his party from Maoistoutfits in India, saying their agendas are different.

"Our ideologies are same and we some affinity, butMaoists in India have different agendas. We fought againstmonarchy, contested elections and emerged as a single largestparty," he said.