Saugata Roy speaks in LS on Chinese incursion in Uttarakhand

Madam, the Chinese troops were active in the Bara Hoti area of Chamoli District, Uttarakhand. Uttarakhand Chief Minister on Wednesday confirmed that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had transgressed the area earlier this month. The transgression came to light when Chamoli district officers had gone to Bara Hoti on July 19 to collect data on landholding. They noticed Chinese troops on the ground while a helicopter even hovered over the area five minutes before returning to their side.

According to Home Ministry officials the PLA troops told the officials to go back as the area belonged to them. They told the Indian team that they recognized the area as ‘uje’. The official said Chinese helicopter could have carried out a real photography of Bara Hoti. The PLA troops however did not cross the canal in Bara Hoti that has become the unofficial demarcation line between India and China.

Uttarakhand shares a 350 km boundary with China. And this instance is not the first incident of transgression by China. The Central Government should take immediate steps to counter Chinese aggression and transgression into our land. And we expect a statement from the Home Minister or the Defense Minister on this issue.

 

Bengal leads among States in Clean Ganga Mission

The West Bengal Government has another reason to smile. A recent meeting held in Delhi shows that Bengal tops in executing the clean Ganga mission schemes among the five states through which the Ganges flows. The other four states are Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand.

The meeting was held by officials of the ministry of water resources to review the performance of the five Ganga states in implementing National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) schemes.

According to officials, the data shows that Bengal, which also has the highest number of sanctioned projects, has completed 23 out of the 30 sanctioned projects that are being implemented in 24 towns across the state, with a sanctioned cost of Rs 1352 crore.

Uttarakhand comes next, completing two projects out of the 16 sanctioned projects being implemented in 11 towns there, with a sanctioned cost of Rs 251.21 crore. Uttar Pradesh is yet to complete any of the 15 sanctioned and ongoing projects. Bihar is implementing 12 schemes and Jharkhand one.

It was discussed in the meeting that a more Ganga-centric multi-pronged strategy would be followed to prevent river pollution.

Selected stretches will be properly monitored with CCTVs to check activities on the river side and the quality of water.