No one can encroach on even an inch of our land: Amit Shah in Arunachal Pradesh

Union home minister Amit Shah said on Monday that "no one can dare to encroach even an inch of India's land" as he launched Vibrant Village Programme (VVP) at Kibithoo in Arunachal Pradesh. "Time to have an evil eye on Indian land is over. Today, if anyone tries to occupy even a needle point... even an inch of land, we will not allow anyone to occupy our territory," he said.

The home minister asserted that "border security is now national security" and that instead of referring to villages on the India-China border as the "last villages", they should be termed "first villages". Kibithoo was occupied by Chinese forces during the 1962 Chinese aggression.

Shah said an action plan has been prepared to run the VVP in mission mode. He said the participation and responsibility of the panchayats and gram sabhas in the administration at the central, state, district and block levels would be ensured and that all the schemes have been prepared in an integrated and coordinated manner for 100% implementation.

Shah said the Modi government has changed the image of the region in the past nine years from "disturbed region" to an area contributing to the nation's progress.

"Before 2014, the entire Northeast region was known as a disturbed region but in the last nine years, because of PM Modi's 'Look East' policy, the Northeast is now considered an area which contributes to the progress of the country," said Shah. "Due to the laziness of the leaders in Delhi at some point, this area was disputed. There was no peace, development and connectivity. Today, the disputes are coming to an end, extremism is coming to an end. There is a new dawn of development and peace."

Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu, who was present during the launch, said the Centre and state government are focusing on making villages become self-sufficient which will help make the nation stronger.

Khandu said the nine micro hydel projects launched by Shah along with VVP will provide electricity supply to eight border districts covering 25 villages and benefit 5,332 people. These hydel projects will also benefit 11 Army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police installations along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), said Shah.