Rajnath Singh says people living at India-China border are 'strategic assets', urges them not to migrate

JOSHIMATH (Uttarakhand): Asserting that people living at India-China border are "strategic assets" for the government and security forces, Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday said that "border population should not migrate from their villages".

Rajnath Singh, who is on a four-day visit to forward outposts along the India-China border, said that "it won't be good from security point of view if our brothers and sisters living on the border migrate from there".

Uttarakhand, which shares around 350km long border with China, has been facing major problem of people leaving their homes in the hills due to lack of employment and basic facilities like education and healthcare and in the process turning border villages into ghost villages.

In a statement last year, Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat had said that "we need civilian population in border villages to ensure there is no Kargil-type situation".

Addressing locals and jawans at first battalion Joshimath camp of ITBP, Rajnath Singh added that "The border people are strategic assets for us. They should be given more importance".

The border population migrate from their homes in hills in search of work or due to lack of facilities. "They are strategic because they can provide timely intelligence about any possible incursion or transgression by enemy forces", a border security officer told TOI.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi thinks about you (border population). He keeps on telling me that we have to take care of you," the Home minister said.

He also asked ITBP to develop friendly relations with the local population and continue civic action programmes to build confidence among the locals.

Earlier in the day, Rajnath Singh visited two forward BoPs (border out posts) - Rimkhim and Lapthal, near China border, and reviewed the conditions under which ITBP and Indian Army jawans are securing the border. Singh is the first Union home minister to visit Lapthal BoP ever while Rimkhim, which is close to Barahoti where Chinese troops transgressed on July 24 this year, was last visited by then home minister LK Advani in 1998.

Rajnath Singh told ITBP that he will take up with the Department of Telecom (DoT) the issue of Jawans paying Rs 5 per minute for calls they make to their family members from the BoPs, situation at the altitude of over 10,000 feet. "I have been told that earlier they used to be charged Rs 1 for every minute, which is now Rs 5 per minute for mobile calls. I will raise this issue with the telecom ministry. Our jawans should be able to talk to their families," he said.

Speaking at the function, CM Uttarakhand Rawat said that his government has decided to provide government job to one family member of paramilitary forces belonging to state who die in action.

He also informed the locals that his government has formed an eco-task force having retired officials to help in development of the region.