Tibetan Review
December 25, 2013
Expressing concern at continuing intrusions by the Chinese army along the border with occupied Tibet, a delegation of a social organization from the state of Arunachal Pradesh has asked New Delhi to strengthen the security there, including by replacing the border police with the army, reported times of india.indiatimes.com Dec 24. In an official statement on Dec 23, the delegation, representing the Arunachal Pradesh Vikash Parishad (AVP), has said that in Aug 2013, Chinese troops had intruded into Arunachal Pradesh and stayed camped for at least five days in the Chaglagam area, about 20km inside Indian territory.
The 13-member delegation of tribal leaders said in their statement that it had submitted a 14-point memorandum to India’s defence minister, demanding, among other things, deployment of the army in the border areas (replacing the existing Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force), construction of roads for movement of vehicles and other infrastructure development and increase in the number of surveillance and patrolling posts along the Chinese occupied-Tibet border area. It wanted the defence forces to organize welfare activities for border area villagers.
The delegation has also called for the raising of an Arunachal Scouts Regiment on a par with the Ladakh Scouts for better coordination with the local people and to ensure more effective border patrolling and surveillance.
Visiting New Delhi to press their demands, the delegation was reported to have called on Vice-President Hamid Ansari and various other central leaders, including defence minister A K Anthony and the leaders of opposition in Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj, respectively.
The delegation was led by AVP president Pratik Potom, vice-president Techi Gubin and general secretary Tarh Takia.
