Ladakh MP Namggyal hits out at Congress for ignoring border areas development

New Delhi, Feb 9 (UNI) Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, BJP MP from Ladakh, on Wednesday said the border infrastructure in India has been strengthened and the people of border villages have been empowered under the Modi government, and hit out against the previous Congress regimes for “emptying” the border areas. In an impassioned address in the Lok Sabha in the debate on the Budget, Tsering said under the Congress no facilities were provided to the border areas, including no telecom facilities and roads. “Now for the first time, under the vibrant village programme (of the Modi government) all the border villages are being strengthened, and I welcome that,” he said. He said in September 2013, then Congress defence minister AK Antony had said that Independent India has a policy for many years of not developing the borders and that the best defence is not to develop the border. “For this reason for many years no construction of infrastructure was done on the borders. Now China has gone ahead of us in infrastructure, capability wise.” Hitting out at the Congress, he said they wanted to keep the border areas backward and underdeveloped as part of border security. “Now those same shameless people are asking questions about Galwan, Doklam… If there is a problem today it is because of their policies,” he said. He said a 230 km road project launched by former PM AB Vajpayee was not completed by the Congress and instead it was given to a vigilance panel that raised questions. Tsering said that instead of black topping the road the people placed kambal (woollen blankets). “Now development has started there anew,” he added. Tsering accused the opposition of ignoring the contribution of Indian Army soldiers, especially those who fought in the 1962 Battle of Rezang La.