GUWAHATI: The All Arunachal Pradesh Students Union (AAPSU) has said that the Centre needed to look at the issue of Chinese incursions with utmost seriousness.
Speaking to The Shillong Times on Wednesday, AAPSU general secretary, Tobom Dai said that “the statement made by BJP MP, Tapir Gao in Parliament regarding Chinese incursions in Arunachal, was an old story which successive governments in Delhi, whether it be of Congress or the present regime of BJP, have downplayed.”
Gao had during Zero Hour claimed that China had “control over 50 to 60km of land in Arunachal Pradesh” and that the Centre needed to focus on the issue to avoid another Doklam-like incident in the state.
Troops of India and China were locked in a 73-day stand-off in Doklam near Sikkim last year after the Indian side stopped the building of a road in the disputed area by the Chinese army.
“Now since an MP of the ruling dispensation has raised the issue we hope that the central government would look into the matter with more seriousness,” Dai said.
Earlier in September this year, the MP had claimed that the Chinese army intruded into the remote district of Anjaw in the state and constructed a bridge over a stream.
“Apart from incursion issues there are a plethora of contentious issues placed by AAPSU in the table of the central government at different point of time vis-a-vis the Chinese government policy with regard to Arunachal Pradesh,” the AAPSU general secretary said.
India and China share a nearly 4,000-km border, which is not clearly demarcated, leading to incursions by the two sides into each other’s territory.
Apart from border issues, the union has over the past several years raised the issue of artificial flooding of the Siang river (which originates in Tibet and flows into Arunachal as Siang and enters Assam as Brahmaputra).
“Then there is the never ending quagmire of stapled visas that China (which stakes claim over Arunachal territory) issues to people from the state from time to time,” he said.
Issuance of stapled visas to sportspersons from Arunachal has in the past barred them from getting immigration clearance to take part in events in the neighbouring country.