Empowering the Border Cities
The international borders are gateways to the outer world through road networks and the experience of living in the border cities is better when your side of the border is prosperous and you have higher self-respect and confidence for what you are. In the case of Nepalese borders which connect to India and China, the status of development is experienced to be poorer in most of the cases than the other side of the border. Since the Nepalese border is open to India, the condition of free movement through the passes become more flexible and unrestricted which adds in the formal and informal economic activities in the borders. This results in the complication of unbalanced development towards Nepal, where the larger economic, social and political activities continue on the other side.
The natural growth of the market in the international borders where the road network connects to the other side openly is higher. The visit and experience from the Ilam border to the India in East and Baitadi border to the India in West of the Nepal is taken into mind in analyzing the border issues .The Nepal side is served with the very poor mud road whereas the next side is served with blacktopped roads.The infrastructure development, economic activities and livelihood seems to be completely dependent and controlled by the larger markets in the Indian side. Even the Nepalese currency is less accepted in the borders than the Indian currency which directly shows the control of the market from the other side. In addition, the peoples’ movement and social activities, presence of the security institutions, economic transactions and observed quality of life, self-confidence and motivation factors in people is observed to be poor and inefficient in Nepalese side in comparison to the other side.
The true facts that exist in the borders are mentioned above. Also, being the student of Urban Planning from IOE, the facts seen in the borders are not just forgotten but the ways to empower these conditions in Nepalese side are conceptualized and presented here. In order to make the better conditions we must act with a different approach in the border cities than experienced in the past where the higher priority in development of the borders is seen inhabitable, as the borders are strengthened and empowered up to higher level of development, the transit between two de-facto cities in the both side are under control of the higher developed side in all the aspects. The economic behavior at the border mainly controls almost everything, the infrastructure development with higher priority and socio-cultural and political development programs, production and export focused activities are mandatory to establish as soon as possible. The commitments from the related political parties and election candidates can come up for this border empowerment strategy before the election in the December.
The basic concept for the development of the border cities with higher priority is to protect the National sovereignty with the implication of planning and strategy of socio-economic and infrastructure development which certainly attracts the political backup. For example, present scenario in the East Ilam border to the Darjiling is export of the raw materials like cardamom, ginger, broom grass etc. which is further purified and value added in the India. The value added products are sold by the India whereas Nepal simply exports the raw materials. Simply, with the establishment of the industry in the border in Nepalese side which purifies the raw material making a fine product with added value and its export would increase the employment and empower the economic conditions in the Nepalese side very effectively.
The physical infrastructure not only increases the quality of life but also increase the motivation level of the people. It feels pride for a person to have a blacktopped road for access to the border and deal accordingly for better opportunity rather than reaching to the border by having a poor dusty muddy road. Basically good governance in the border is very important to empower the borders.
The experience shows the pitifully crushed market in the Nepalese side where the larger market on the city in the next side is huge and dominant. To come up with the reverse conditions, the investment by the government in the border cities is most important .This results into the strong and powerful borders that eventually become able to operate directly or indirectly the two cities in the both sides. Presently, the larger cities or the market of larger economy in the Indian side is dominant. The expectation is to achieve the balanced city on the Nepalese side having the larger or empowered city in Indo-Nepal border and it certainly needs investment and concern of the government and the first stage becomes the identification of strength point. The plan to use the strength as a tool for development in this side of the border which is the most important part of the observation in the Indo-Nepalese borders.
