The All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU) while expressing annoyance at Centre down playing the alleged recent incursion by China in Tuting sector in Upper Siang district, demanded positive and pro-active response from both the Central and the State Governments.
Local villagers reported that a Chinese road-building team accompanied by Chinese army had entered India with excavators on December 28 last year.
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When the issue was raked up security agency officials promptly downplayed the matter saying the civilian teams came for track alignment activities and returned when confronted by the Indian troops, leaving behind various road building equipment including excavators.
“There is no troop confrontation at the site near the Bishing village in Tuting area of Arunachal’s Upper Siang district. It’s not a Doklam-like situation. The issue is being resolved through the established coordination mechanism (flag and border personnel meetings) between the two countries … the Chinese will be asked to take their road-construction equipment back,” a government statement said in New Delhi.
However, according to local villagers in Arunachal Pradesh, the Chinese team members included civilians as well as uniformed personnel.
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The students’ body was of the strong view that the repeated claims and incursions of China clearly ‘undermined India’s sovereignty’.
“The mute response and repeated downplaying of such serious developments by the Central Government reflects its ambiguity on the subject,” the union stated in a press release.
It also said ‘the vexed issue of stapled visa is a glaring example whereby the people of Arunachal Pradesh have been deprived by the Central Government’.
Referring to the ongoing upgrading of the National Register of Citizens in neighbouring Assam, the AAPSU also appealed to the Chief Secretary to direct all the Deputy Commissioners to take prompt steps and check inner-line permits to prevent possible entry of illegal migrants into the State, as the fear of spill over looms large on the north-eastern states sharing inter-state boundary with Assam.