‘People living in border areas no less than soldiers’
New Delhi: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh Friday said that the people living in the border areas are no less than soldiers who are protecting the country.
He was speaking at the inauguration of BRO’s infrastructural projects stating that these projects have been constructed under challenging weather conditions at the most inhospitable terrain.
The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has completed 35 infrastructure projects at a cost of Rs 670 crore, which include 29 bridges and six roads built in seven border areas which were on Friday inaugurated by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
Of these 11 are in Jammu & Kashmir, nine in Ladakh, eight in Arunachal Pradesh, three in Uttarakhand, two in Sikkim and one each in Mizoram and Himachal Pradesh.
The Defence Minister highlighted the government’s approach towards border area development which, he said, completely differs from the previous governments.
He said, “Other governments did not focus on development of the border areas as they considered these zones as the last areas of the country. We, on the other hand, consider border areas as the face of India, which is why we’re ensuring that world-class infrastructure is created in these zones.”
He stressed that connectivity is being provided to every border area in the country through roads, bridges and tunnels, describing the work as not only of strategic importance, but also pivotal for the welfare of the people residing in these regions.
He said, “People living near the borders are no less than soldiers. If a soldier protects the country by wearing a uniform, the residents of border areas are serving the motherland in their own way.”
Rajnath Singh pointed out that the government has changed the approach adopted by the previous governments that the border areas are buffer zones between the plains and the potential adversary.
He emphasised that the present government considers border areas a part of the mainstream and not a buffer zone.
