"Lots Of Progress On Big Infra Projects Along Border": Top Military Officer

We have reached a "very good stage" in synergy and civil-military fusion on infrastructure development as various agencies are involved in ramping up infrastructure projects in northeast India, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Command, Lt Gen Rana Pratap Kalita, said today.

"On certain big ticket infrastructure projects, certainly there has been a lot of progress. While we say infrastructure, it doesn't only constitute roads. Roads are just one part of it...Apart from roads, we are also developing airports, helipads, and also logistical capabilities in various areas and these are included in the overall capability development programme of the nation itself," he said, adding that the PM Gati Shakti scheme, which aims at breaking inter-ministerial silos and ensure seamless movement of infra projects, has also ensured synergy of all the agencies.

On the infrastructure gap between India and China in the border areas, Lt Gen Kalita said just two days back the Defence Minister inaugurated lots of bridges and roads in Eastern Ladakh and the Arunachal Pradesh border. 

Headquartered at Fort William in Kolkata, the Eastern Command of the Indian Army covers the areas of West Bengal, Jharkhand, and all the Northeastern states of India.

Lt Gen Kalita also stressed that all tense situations at the border areas in Arunachal Pradesh and in Sikkim are defused at the local level itself. 

"Post Doklam, which happened in 2017, which was the only time when there was a longish sort of face off, it has all been resolved at the local level only," he said.

The top military officer was speaking at a wreath laying on the occasion of Raising Day of HQ Eastern Command on November 1 at Vijay Smarak, Fort William in Kolkata.

Speaking on the developments in January this year of a youth going missing near the Line of Actual Control (LAC)  in Arunachal Pradesh which shares a border with China, Lt. Gen Kalita told reporters that, "As far as people who go missing are concerned, you know those are all inhospitable areas and there are a lot of our citizens who go hunting as that is their traditional livelihood -- to go for hunting or looking for medicinal plants. Certain times inadvertently they cross because nobody can identify that line. There is a protocol which is laid down, and we get in touch with the PLA (People's Liberation Army) and if they are traced, they are returned after border force meetings. Adherence to existing mechanism helps us reduce all these issues."

In September 2020, the PLA kidnapped five boys from the Upper Subansiri district. They were released a week later, but not before the Indian Army reached out to defuse the situation. In March, the same year, a 21-year-old man was abducted by the Chinese from the same area. He, too, was released after intervention from the Indian Army.