By Syed Zarir Hussain, IANS
Itanagar : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to announce a mega financial package for the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh during his two-day visit to the frontier region beginning Thursday.
“We understand that the prime minister will announce a massive financial package for infrastructure development, power sector, besides funds for completing various unfinished projects and illumination of areas bordering China,” Takam Sanjay, adviser to Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu, told IANS here Tuesday.
The prime minister is scheduled to inaugurate a 110 MW hydel power project at Doimukh on the outskirts of this state capital, besides laying the foundation stone for a permanent complex of the state legislative assembly and the civil secretariat.
Singh is also scheduled to address a public rally at the Indira Gandhi Park here, besides inaugurating the new office building of the ruling Congress party.
“There is tremendous enthusiasm ahead of the prime minister’s visit,” Sanjay said.
Singh’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh assumes significance in view of Beijing still sticking to its stand that a vast stretch of the frontier state belongs to China.
“There is no demand from the Congress party or the state government on the prime minister to raise the border issue. It is a well known fact that Arunchal Pradesh is an integral part of India and that our stand is very clear that there cannot be any compromise on the territorial integrity of the state,” Sanjay said.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), however, is taking a strident posture saying the prime minister was guarded in his reaction to the border row in Arunachal Pradesh during his recent visit to China.
“The muted and guarded response of the central government over claims made by the Chinese over Arunachal Pradesh is hardly encouraging,” said Kiren Rijiju, the BJP MP from the state.
The mountainous state of Arunachal Pradesh shares a 1,030 km unfenced border with China. The McMohan Line, an imaginary line drawn in 1914 and now called the Line of Actual Control (LAC), marks the India-China border along Arunachal Pradesh.
The two countries fought a bloody border war in 1962, with Chinese troops advancing deep into Arunachal Pradesh and inflicting heavy casualties on Indian troops.
The border dispute with China was inherited by India from British colonial rulers, who hosted a 1914 conference with the Tibetan and Chinese governments that set the border in what is now Arunachal Pradesh.
China has never recognised the 1914 boundary and claims 90,000 sq km – nearly all of Arunachal Pradesh. India accuses China of occupying 14,670 sq km in Jammu and Kashmir.