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NEW DELHI: The infrastructure on Indo-China border is undergoing a major upgrade, more so in the aftermath of the border row that led to skirmishes with the Chinese troops in Galwan in 2020, with 18 border roads already complete and operational, 7 about to be completed and work on 8 roads under Phase 11 of the Indo-China Border Roads project, under which 32 roads will be constructed, having started.
According to the report of the department-related parliamentary standing committee on home affairs tabled in Parliament on Monday, 18 foot tracks in Arunachal Pradesh, measuring around 600 kms, have been approved and are being constructed. An additional 47 new ITBP border outposts are being created along the border with China, along with 12 staging camps.
Also, under the vibrant village initiative under the border area development programme, development will be pushed in the border villages by building roads, mobile towers, banks etc. The objective is to make the people stay put in these villages, something which is bound to bolster India’s territorial claims in any future border negotiations, particularly with China.
However, the panel, chaired by Congress Rajya Sabha MP Anand Sharma rued the underutilisation of border infrastructure upgrade allocations and has called for an assessment of the low performance and improvement of the utlisation of funds under these heads in 2022-23.
Going by the report of the standing committee, the home ministry could conduct the first phase of Census – which involved Houselisting and Housing Census – in 2022-2023.
Interestingly, the panel has recommended that the census present the culture, traditions and diversity of the different regions of the country along with numerical data, “census being a pan-India decadal exercise”.
“The census should not merely be data-oriented, rather it should portray the perspective of culture and society,” states the report. The panel members suggested that an effort should be made on part of the home ministry, through the Registrar General of India, to obtain data on such parameters as was being collected/reflected in the census reports in the pre-Independence era.
Though the report does not offer clarify on what the additional parameters on which they would like data to be collected, the pre-Independence era census exercises used to canvas information on the respondents’ race, caste and tribe.
In what could also indicate timing of the upcoming census, the MHA was quoted by panel as saying that it had reduced the allocation under Census head as task related to preparation towards the decennial exercise digitally had been carried out and a provision had been accordingly made “so that the remaining tasks and the first phase of Census could be conducted in this financial year”.
The panel, in the section on representation of women in the Central forces, expressed disappointment that women constitute just 3.68% of their total strength and asked the home ministry to take concrete steps to increase the intake of women, including fast-tracking of the phased recruitment drives for them.
The panel said the Union territories without legislature had utilized approximately 66.6% of the total allocation to them in BE 2020-21 will January 2022. However, it expressed disappointment over the persistent under-utilisation of funds by the UT of Ladakh. It said the MHA should closely monitor the fund utilisation by Ladakh in the ensuing year and take whatever corrective steps are needed.
According to the report of the department-related parliamentary standing committee on home affairs tabled in Parliament on Monday, 18 foot tracks in Arunachal Pradesh, measuring around 600 kms, have been approved and are being constructed. An additional 47 new ITBP border outposts are being created along the border with China, along with 12 staging camps.
Also, under the vibrant village initiative under the border area development programme, development will be pushed in the border villages by building roads, mobile towers, banks etc. The objective is to make the people stay put in these villages, something which is bound to bolster India’s territorial claims in any future border negotiations, particularly with China.
However, the panel, chaired by Congress Rajya Sabha MP Anand Sharma rued the underutilisation of border infrastructure upgrade allocations and has called for an assessment of the low performance and improvement of the utlisation of funds under these heads in 2022-23.
Going by the report of the standing committee, the home ministry could conduct the first phase of Census – which involved Houselisting and Housing Census – in 2022-2023.
Interestingly, the panel has recommended that the census present the culture, traditions and diversity of the different regions of the country along with numerical data, “census being a pan-India decadal exercise”.
“The census should not merely be data-oriented, rather it should portray the perspective of culture and society,” states the report. The panel members suggested that an effort should be made on part of the home ministry, through the Registrar General of India, to obtain data on such parameters as was being collected/reflected in the census reports in the pre-Independence era.
Though the report does not offer clarify on what the additional parameters on which they would like data to be collected, the pre-Independence era census exercises used to canvas information on the respondents’ race, caste and tribe.
In what could also indicate timing of the upcoming census, the MHA was quoted by panel as saying that it had reduced the allocation under Census head as task related to preparation towards the decennial exercise digitally had been carried out and a provision had been accordingly made “so that the remaining tasks and the first phase of Census could be conducted in this financial year”.
The panel, in the section on representation of women in the Central forces, expressed disappointment that women constitute just 3.68% of their total strength and asked the home ministry to take concrete steps to increase the intake of women, including fast-tracking of the phased recruitment drives for them.
The panel said the Union territories without legislature had utilized approximately 66.6% of the total allocation to them in BE 2020-21 will January 2022. However, it expressed disappointment over the persistent under-utilisation of funds by the UT of Ladakh. It said the MHA should closely monitor the fund utilisation by Ladakh in the ensuing year and take whatever corrective steps are needed.
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