NEW DELHI: Civil-military collaboration in border areas is leading to ‘reverse migration‘, defence minister Rajnath Singh said on Wednesday, stressing that the govt and the armed forces are fully committed to development of regions along the frontiers.
Ongoing efforts to build roads, bridges and tunnels in ‘sensitive’ forward locations are not only imperative for national security and ensure swifter military deployments, but have also connected the people residing there with the rest of the country while ensuring their socio-economic progress and promoting tourism, Singh said.
“Border villages are the country’s first villages, not remote areas. The govt is fully committed to their holistic development,” he said, speaking at an inter-ministerial border area development conclave. It was attended by culture and tourism minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu and Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi, among others.
“Our objective is to transform the villages along the northern borders (with China), especially in Uttarakhand, Himachal and Arunachal, which are suffering from limited connectivity and infrastructure, into ‘model villages‘. We aim to connect them to the mainstream of development,” Singh said.
Ongoing efforts to build roads, bridges and tunnels in ‘sensitive’ forward locations are not only imperative for national security and ensure swifter military deployments, but have also connected the people residing there with the rest of the country while ensuring their socio-economic progress and promoting tourism, Singh said.
“Border villages are the country’s first villages, not remote areas. The govt is fully committed to their holistic development,” he said, speaking at an inter-ministerial border area development conclave. It was attended by culture and tourism minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu and Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi, among others.
“Our objective is to transform the villages along the northern borders (with China), especially in Uttarakhand, Himachal and Arunachal, which are suffering from limited connectivity and infrastructure, into ‘model villages‘. We aim to connect them to the mainstream of development,” Singh said.