Owaisi flags China's construction of a village in Arunachal, questions PM Modi's silence

Amid the LAC faceoff, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's alleged silence over China building a village inside Indian territory. He was referring to an NDTV report that cited satellite images dated November 1, 2020, to suggest that China has constructed a new village in the Upper Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh. It added that this village lies nearly 4.5 km within the Indian territory from the border with China. 

In a dig at the Centre's affordable housing scheme, Owaisi questioned the PM on whether this was a special 'Awas Yojana' for China. Moreover, he accused Modi of not revealing the total land under Chinese possession and making no effort to avenge the martyrdom of the 21 soldiers killed in the Galwan Valley. The AIMIM supremo has been claiming that the People's Liberation Army has occupied 1000 sq. km. of Indian territory.

Reacting to the report of China's latest misadventure, the Ministry of External Affairs stated, "China has undertaken such infrastructure construction activity in the past several years. In response, our government too has stepped up border infrastructure including the construction of roads, bridges etc, which has provided much-needed connectivity to the local population along the border. Government remains committed to the objective of creating infrastructure along the border areas for the improvement of livelihood of its citizens, including in Arunachal Pradesh. Government keeps a constant watch on all developments having a bearing on India's security and takes all the necessary measures to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity."

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LAC faceoff

The faceoff at the Line of Actual Control was exacerbated when 21 Indian Army soldiers including a Commanding Officer were martyred in the Galwan Valley on June 15, 2020, when the de-escalation process was underway. This was followed by multiple attempts of provocation by the Chinese side at the end of August. Multiple rounds of military commander-level and WMCC meetings have taken place between the two sides to resolve the crisis. Besides this, EAM S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnah Singh have met their respective counterparts. 

The 20th meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) took place on December 18. The developments along the LAC were reviewed and both sides agreed to work towards ensuring complete disengagement as per the agreements reached between the respective Foreign Ministers and Special Representatives. Furthermore, they acknowledged that the 7th and 8th round of military commander-level talks had contributed to ensuring "stability on the ground". While a consensus was reached on holding another meeting of senior military commanders, it has not been formally scheduled yet. 

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