CM Pema Khandu dismisses media reports on China building village in Arunachal

ITANAGAR: Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Friday dismissed recent media reports of China constructing a village in Upper Subansiri district of the State, saying that the village already exists in the area under Chinese occupation since decades.

Participating in Budget discussion in the Assembly, Khandu informed that the area inside the McMahon Line within India's territory is under occupation of China since 1950.

"Not only in Upper Subansiri, but areas in several other districts of the State are under Chinese occupation since decades as the McMahon line is an imaginary line that divides both the neighbouring countries," said Khandu.

The Chief Minister added that the neighbouring country had already created world-class infrastructure along the international border with India; and the Centre had attached top priority in developing the border areas.

BORDER VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT: "The State government has embarked on an ambitious plan on developing three model villages along the Indo-Tibet and Indo-China borderd as pilot projects with an allocation of Rs 30 crore in the 2021-21 Budget," disclosed Khandu. He said, the three villages would be developed initially in Eastern, Central and Western parts of the State along the international border. "Development of border villages will remain as an important priority of our government. ''Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the last few years have witnessed an unprecedented focus on border area infrastructure development, especially the road connectivity. We will continue to work for comprehensive development of border villages by providing them good road connectivity, power, water supply, health, and education," said the Chief Minister.

Khandu added that the State government also proposed repair all foot suspension bridges in border areas used by the border guarding forces for patrolling, besides proposing to launch border village illumination programme thereby establishing small and micro hydels in remote border areas which can be used in local grid or off grid mode."We will dovetail Central Road Fund (CRF) allocation with Chief Minister Comprehensive State Road Plan, a five-year programme from 2019-24 for construction of roads in border districts," Khandu added.