NEW DELHI: Infrastructure at the Indochina border is undergoing a major upgrade, more so following the border line that led to skirmishes with Chinese troops at Galwan in 2020, with 18 border roads already completed and operational, with 7 nearing completion and work on 8 roads under Phase 11 of the Indo-China Border Roads project, under which 32 roads will be constructed, having commenced.
According to the report of the Parliamentary Home Affairs Standing Committee linked to the department tabled in Parliament on Monday, 18 footpaths in Arunachal Pradesh, measuring about 600 km, have been approved and are being constructed. An additional 47 new ITBP outposts are being established along the border with China, along with 12 transit camps.
In addition, under the Vibrant Villages Initiative of the Border Area Development Program, development will be pushed to the border villages by constructing roads, mobile towers, banks, etc. The aim is to ensure that people stay in these villages, which is linked to strengthening India’s territorial claims in any future border negotiations, especially with China.
However, the panel, chaired by Congress MP Rajya Sabha, Anand Sharma, lamented the underutilization of border infrastructure upgrade allocations and called for an assessment of poor performance and improvement of the use of funds under these headings in 2022-23.
According to the standing committee’s report, the Home Office could carry out the first phase of the census – which involved registering houses and enumerating dwellings – in 2022-2023.
Interestingly, the panel recommended that the census should feature the culture, traditions and diversity of different parts of the country along with numerical data, “the census being a pan-Indian ten-year exercise”.
“The census should not simply be data-driven, rather it should present the perspective of culture and society,” the report says. Panel members suggested that an effort should be made by the Ministry of Home Affairs, through the Registrar General of India, to obtain data on the parameters as collected/reflected in census reports in the pre-independence era.
Although the report does not offer specifics on what additional parameters they would like data to be collected on, pre-independence census exercises were used to collect information on the race, caste and tribe of respondents.
In what could also indicate the timing of the next census, the MHA was quoted by the panel as saying that it had reduced the allocation under the head of the census because the task related to the preparation of the ten-year exercise numerically had been carried out and a provision had been made accordingly “so that the remaining tasks and the first phase of the census could be carried out during this exercise”.
The panel, in the section on women’s representation in the central forces, expressed disappointment that women constitute only 3.68% of their total workforce and called on the Home Office to take concrete steps to increase the admission of women, including the acceleration of the progressive establishment of recruitment campaigns for them.
The panel said Union Territories without a Legislature had used around 66.6% of the total allocation allocated to them in BE 2020-21 through January 2022. However, it expressed disappointment with the persistent underutilization of funds by UT Ladakh. He said the MHA should closely monitor Ladakh’s use of funds over the coming year and take all necessary corrective actions.
According to the report of the Parliamentary Home Affairs Standing Committee linked to the department tabled in Parliament on Monday, 18 footpaths in Arunachal Pradesh, measuring about 600 km, have been approved and are being constructed. An additional 47 new ITBP outposts are being established along the border with China, along with 12 transit camps.
In addition, under the Vibrant Villages Initiative of the Border Area Development Program, development will be pushed to the border villages by constructing roads, mobile towers, banks, etc. The aim is to ensure that people stay in these villages, which is linked to strengthening India’s territorial claims in any future border negotiations, especially with China.
However, the panel, chaired by Congress MP Rajya Sabha, Anand Sharma, lamented the underutilization of border infrastructure upgrade allocations and called for an assessment of poor performance and improvement of the use of funds under these headings in 2022-23.
According to the standing committee’s report, the Home Office could carry out the first phase of the census – which involved registering houses and enumerating dwellings – in 2022-2023.
Interestingly, the panel recommended that the census should feature the culture, traditions and diversity of different parts of the country along with numerical data, “the census being a pan-Indian ten-year exercise”.
“The census should not simply be data-driven, rather it should present the perspective of culture and society,” the report says. Panel members suggested that an effort should be made by the Ministry of Home Affairs, through the Registrar General of India, to obtain data on the parameters as collected/reflected in census reports in the pre-independence era.
Although the report does not offer specifics on what additional parameters they would like data to be collected on, pre-independence census exercises were used to collect information on the race, caste and tribe of respondents.
In what could also indicate the timing of the next census, the MHA was quoted by the panel as saying that it had reduced the allocation under the head of the census because the task related to the preparation of the ten-year exercise numerically had been carried out and a provision had been made accordingly “so that the remaining tasks and the first phase of the census could be carried out during this exercise”.
The panel, in the section on women’s representation in the central forces, expressed disappointment that women constitute only 3.68% of their total workforce and called on the Home Office to take concrete steps to increase the admission of women, including the acceleration of the progressive establishment of recruitment campaigns for them.
The panel said Union Territories without a Legislature had used around 66.6% of the total allocation allocated to them in BE 2020-21 through January 2022. However, it expressed disappointment with the persistent underutilization of funds by UT Ladakh. He said the MHA should closely monitor Ladakh’s use of funds over the coming year and take all necessary corrective actions.
