india

Updated: Oct 13, 2019 09:23 IST

In an unusual gesture, residents of 10 villages in Arunachal Pradesh near the border with China have decided not to claim compensation for their land for construction of a road in order to fast track connectivity to the remote region.

The villages—Gette, Pugging, Likor, Palling, Singging, Angging, Zido, Ngaming, Mayung and Bishing—fall under the proposed 150km-long Yingkiong-Bishing two-lane highway that will boost connectivity.

Bishing village, the last Indian village closest to the McMohan Line, which demarcates the boundary between China’s Tibet region and Arunachal Pradesh, is home to around 100 people, mostly from the Memba tribe.

Representatives of these villages met Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu at Yingkiong, the headquarters of Upper Siang district, on Saturday and informed him of their decision.

According to a state government release, the villagers under the banner of ‘Yingkiong to Bishing 2-lane Highway Committee’ took a decision at a recently-held public meeting to not seek compensation for land falling under road construction so that work on the project starts early.

Two representatives of the committee, Bani Danggen and Takkin Tekseng, handed over a memorandum to Khandu informing him of the resolution adopted by the villagers.

Appreciating the “pro-development attitude” of the villagers, the chief minister said that such a cooperative gesture shown by the villagers is an example for the rest of the state to follow.

“Such a positive attitude is the need of the hour particularly when many development projects of public importance in the state are stuck due to land compensation matter,” Khandu said.

He informed the representatives that due to the cooperation shown by the villagers, the proposed road construction project would be taken up with the Union ministry on priority for its early sanction.

Khandu added that the survey work on the project has already been completed.

Last year, Chinese personnel were found doing track alignment construction work near Bishing. When they were confronted by Indian troops, the Chinese went back leaving their road construction equipment.