Shimla, March 22: Himachal chief minister P K Dhumal today accused the UPA government for not taking a serious notice of Chinese interference along the Tibet border and cautioned that ignoring these “warning signals” could land the country into serious trouble.
“China is sometime violating the airspace, objecting to road constructions in Leh, building ultramodern airfields in Tibet and extending the railway line upto Tibet border” but the Indian government was conveniently ignoring these warnings, the BJP chief minister said.
He was replying to a calling attention motion in the state Assembly on “violation of Indian airspace by two Chinese helicopters along Himachal border”.
“We could not perceive the Chinese threat in 1962 as we were enamoured by ‘Hindi- Chini, Bhai Bhai' and now again, China is strengthening its borders and we must take it seriously,” he said.
Attacking China for violation of Indian airspace over Himachal border, Dhumal said that the government has allocated a piece of land to the Indian Air Force (IAF) for installation of a radar to monitor the air space.
“The IAF approached the government and a land has been provided to it,” he said.
The calling attention was moved by BJP member Ram Lal Markandey, who cited news reports regarding intrusion of two Chinese helicopters into Indian Airspace.
The helicopters were spotted by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) on March 16 over Kaurik, close to the international border, about 330 km from state capital Shimla in tribal Spiti Valley.
China has been complaining and objecting to anything being done by India on the border and even opposed visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Arunachal Pradesh and movement of exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama even within India, Dhumal said.
“There have been reports about China strengthening the infrastructure being created by China on its side of the border and even China has installed missiles that could target any Indian city in Tibet.
“I have apprised the government of India in this regard a number of times and requested them to strengthen the infrastructure along the Indian border and take necessary measures to safeguard the state,” Dhumal said.
He said even Chinese aircraft, after intruding into Indian airspace from Himachal from one side, cross Indian border within 15-20 minutes and land in Pakistan and described it as a serious issue and needs attention of Union government.
