GUWAHATI: In a case of administrative goof-up, two Chinese nationals visited some of the “strategically important” locations in Arunachal Pradesh on Protected Area Permit (PAP) issued instead of the Restricted Area Permit (RAP).
The incident came to light about three weeks after expiration of the PAP, which was recovered only recently from Bomdila in the frontier state that shares international border with China, Bhutan and Myanmar.
“On August 30, PAP was issued to two Chinese nationals from Hongkong — Young James John and Wu Chong Shong. They wanted the PAP to enter Tawang, West Kameng and Lower Subansiri districts for 30 days from September 12 to October 11,” said an official at the Deputy Resident Commissioner of Arunachal Pradesh in Guwahati on Thursday.
“The application for the PAP was recommended to our office by the Resident Tourism Officer of the government of Arunachal Pradesh. The concerned officer here must have overlooked the issue of Chinese citizenship of the two tourists and issued the PAP instead of RAP,” he further said.
Tawang and West Kameng are heavily militarised zones and are of strategic importance to India, considering the security concern of the country and China’s claim over Tawang as their territory.
The Ministry instructed the matter stating that the issuing authority should exercise utmost caution before granting a special permit to a foreigner. (IANS)
