Rajnath chairs meeting with CMs of states bordering China

In a first, Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday chaired the first security review meeting with the chief ministers of five states bordering China.

Chief ministers of Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh — Trivendra Singh Rawat, Pawan Kumar Chamling and Pema Khandu, respectively — and representatives from Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh attended the meeting held in Gangtok.

He asked the state governments to remain “very vigilant” against Chinese transgression along the India-China border, which is not clearly demarcated. India and China have been engaged in border talks for clarifying and confirming the Line of Actual Control .

Directed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the home minister called for upgrading facilities in these areas. Located at high altitudes, these places have inadequate development and infrastructure.

The Centre wants to focus on the development of model villages in the border districts so that people do not migrate to other areas. In the first stage, the home ministry is building 27 roads near the border, which will be completed by 2020. A set of another 48 roads will also be taken up. Rajnath said the thinning of population and migration from the border areas is a cause of concern.

The Indo-Tibetan Border Police guards the 3,488 km India-China border in Jammu and Kashmir (1,597 km), Himachal Pradesh (200 km), Uttarakhand (345 km), Sikkim (220 km) and Arunachal Pradesh (1,126 km). They have established 173 Border Outposts (BOP). Out of these, 35 BOPs are in the western sector (Jammu and Kashmir), 71 in the middle sector (Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand) and 67 in the eastern sector (Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh).