New Delhi: In the violent skirmish with Chinese PLA troops at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh, 20 jawans lost their lives while inflicting heavy casualties on the Chinese side. The Galwan valley face-off saw more than 43 Chinese troops killed.
The incident has left the nation outraged with anti-China sentiments running strong and many calling for boycott of Chinese goods.
At the All-party meeting called by PM Modi, almost all parties stood by the government and slammed China for its aggression along the LAC.
However, Congress is far from convinced. Rahul Gandhi along with senior Congressmen are repeatedly training guns at the Modi government, leveling allegations and posing series of questions. A few of them accused the Prime Minister of ‘lying to the nation’ on Ladakh face-off and ‘keeping them in dark’ on many issues.
Rahul Gandhi has rightly drawn wrath from several quarters, still the party is bent on cornering the government over Ladakh face-off.
A look at the below facts will help understand the situation at the border:
Frequent face-offs due to increased patrolling
Briefing the all party meet, PM Modi said unlike past, the security forces have stepped up patrolling in border areas and this has left the enemies flustered.
As per ground report, the infrastructure at border areas has seen significant increase in last 5 years, which in turn has enabled forces to increase patrolling.
“The more frequent face-offs are not necessarily a sign of weakness or bad relations, but indicate a greater ability on the part of the Indian Army to monitor, detect and respond to PLA patrolling. As infrastructure keeps improving, these possibilities will only increase,” says the report.
Red Tapism during UPA hindered infra growth
A comparable study of infrastructure growth during UPA and NDA reveals the clear picture. During UPA, the infra projects waited for years for clearance and eventually ended up in cold storage. Many a times, road and highway projects in border areas got delayed due to flip-flops in environmental clearances by UPA ministers, especially under the stewardship of Jairam Ramesh and Jayanti Natarajan.
In 2014, after Modi-led NDA govt assumed charge for the first time, it issued a general approval for creation of Road network by Border Roads Organization within 100 kilometers of aerial distance from LAC. This general approval ensured that requirement of prior approval from Central Government and other bureaucratic processes were done away with.
Subsequently, this exemption has been extended to all border security related infrastructure such as border outposts, floodlights, fencing etc. and all projects executed by Para Military Organizations of MHA, said the report.
Similarly, Modi Government delegated powers to DG, Border Roads clearing the way for construction of 66 operationally critical Indo-China Border Roads. Earlier, every approval came to the Ministry of Defence.
Such path-breaking decisions has helped security forces scale up their operations while giving them an upper hand in manning the borders.
A look at road infrastructure during UPA & NDA
Tunnel Construction:
2008-14: 1
2014-2020: 6, additional 19 tunnels under planning
Bridges Completed:
2008-14: 7270 m
2014-20: 14450 m
Roads Completed:
2008-14: 3610 km
2014-20: 4764 km
