PMO to deal with threats from China

The Prime Minister’s Office has taken complete charge to deal with the increasing threat from China, particularly in wake of the repeated instances of incursions, and is working on a comprehensive blueprint in close co- ordination with key ministries for this purpose. Highly placed government sources said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has directed his principal secretary Nripendra Mishra and national security advisor Ajit Doval to ensure that the government has a foolproof strategy to counter China’s increasing transgressions into Indian territory.

The PMO has already set the ball rolling in this direction by involving various security and intelligence agencies and important ministries like home, defence, tourism, surface transport, railways, health etc. Sources said as part of its strategy to deal with China the government plans to set up more villages close to the Line of Actual Control as well as the international border right from Ladakh to Arunachal.

These villages will be equipped with all infrastructure facilities including health, education, water, good roads, business enterprises like shops and hotels, security check posts etc.

The government will develop these villages into places of tourists interests also so that they can attract “more foot fall particularly from Indian tourists” and will encourage hotels, restaurants and shops to come up in the areas close to border in a big way.

According to intelligence reports available with the government, Chinese troops take advantage of the fact that most of the land close to the LAC and the border is uninhabited so the government has major development plans for these regions.

“We need to work on a two pronged strategy to counter the Chinese threat. First is the security aspect. But what is equally important is development of the region by ensuring more Indians settles in these parts of the country. So in the months ahead we will focus more on this because there is a view that increased presence of Indian nationals close to the border will act as a deterrent,” a senior government functionary said.

India and China are likely to hold the next edition of their joint military exercises “Hand- in- Hand” in Pune from November 3 to 14 in 2014. The two countries have already discussed the modalities of holding the joint military exercises which were first started in 2007, sources said.