GPS-aided demarcation drive on to solve 50-year-old Uttar Pradesh-Haryana border dispute

MEERUT: Authorities started demarcating large swathes of the UP-Haryana border using a GPS-backed method on Tuesday in an attempt to resolve land disputes between 234 villages across the two states that go back 50 years or more. The process began at Baghpat’s Kheda Mastan and Kotana villages and involved the erection of pillars to define the slippery border. Each pillar has a GPS location so that in the event of a "breakdown", the point of demarcation can still remain "intact".
The Lok Sabha in 2003 had flagged off concerns regarding the increasing number of land disputes between the two states. The Centre has often tried to make efforts to resolve them.
The disputes arise because the course of the Yamuna river is considered to be the "border". However, it keeps changing its course every monsoon, leading to arguments and bloody fights.
At present, 132 villages across five districts in Uttar Pradesh and 102 villages across six districts in Haryana are located on the border and witness frequent clashes over land disputes.
Six West UP districts have recorded violent clashes over borders
Six districts in western UP -- Shamli, Saharanpur, Baghpat, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Bulandshahr and Aligarh -- have, for instance, recorded violent clashes between farmers of the two states over ownership of fields at the border.
Baghpat district magistrate Raj Kamal Yadav told TOI, "We have erected these pillars in two villages where clashes are frequent. After consultations with our counterparts from Panipat (Haryana), two teams were deployed to study the maps. Besides, the UP government sent a state survey team that used an 'electronic total station', a piece of modern-surveying equipment, which establishes the GPS location of the point where a pillar is erected. Similarly, Haryana used digital GPS technology to earmark the border. Soon, we will replicate the method in other villages as well.
Every village has around five pillars." Clashes between farmers left one dead last April in Nagla Behlolpur village in Baraut tehsil (Baghpat). Several others were injured. Villages such as Tanda in UP and Jajal in the Sonepat district of Haryana have also witnessed similar face-offs.