Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Kibithoo, Arunachal Pradesh. PTI.
Itanagar: “No one can encroach upon even a needle-tip of land of India,” said India’s Home Minister Amit Shah in a fitting reply to China who renamed 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh last week which it calls “Zangnan, the southern part of Tibet”.
Earlier in the day, China opposed Shah’s visit to the north-eastern state and said it “violates Beijing’s territorial sovereignty and is not conducive to the peace and tranquillity of the border situation.”
“Today, we can proudly say that no one can encroach even a tip of a pin’s worth of our land because ITBP and Indian Army are present at our borders,” Shah said in Kibithoo, a village along the India-China border, where he launched the ‘Vibrant Villages Programme’ (VVP).
Border areas first priority of Modi government
The Union Home Minister said border areas are first priority of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government.
“Before 2014, the entire Northeast region was known as a disturbed region but in the last 9 years, because of PM Modi’s ‘Look East’ policy, Northeast is now considered an area which contributes to the development of the country,” Shah said.
He further said, “The entire country can sleep peacefully in their homes today because our ITBP jawans and Army is working day and night on our borders. Today, we can proudly say that no one has the power to cast an evil eye on us.”
The Home Minister paid homage to martyrs of 1962 India-China war in Kibithoo who “fought with valour despite lacking in resources”.
The Home Minister described Kibithoo as India’s first village and not last village.
“Kibithoo is India’s first village and not the last village. Earlier when people visited here, they used to say, ‘I had gone to the last village of the country,’ but today, I’ll say that I visited the first village of India,” he said.
The Government of India, under the leadership of PM Modi, has approved the VVP with central components of Rs 4,800 crore, including Rs 2,500 crore exclusively for road connectivity for the Financial Years 2022-23 to 2025-26.
The VVP is a centrally sponsored scheme under which 2,967 villages in 46 blocks of 19 districts abutting the northern border in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh and the Union Territory of Ladakh have been identified for comprehensive development.
In the first phase, 662 villages have been identified for priority coverage, which includes 455 villages in Arunachal Pradesh.
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