Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today said there is no Chinese “pressure” on India for halting the developmental works along the Indo-Sino border in Ladakh.
Mr Abdullah’s statement came in the backdrop of the Home Ministry letter, written in November 2010 to the state government asserting, “You are not to undertake any construction work of any nature in Demchok area till clearance of the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi, is obtained.” “No, there is no Chinese pressure on India. There are certain areas where historically we have not yet been able to demarcate the actual borders,” Mr Abdullah told reporters after laying the foundation stone of the Legislative Complex at Civil Secretariat here.
He said, “Due to no proper demarcation of actual border, certain issues arise time to time, which have to be addressed diplomatically.” The Chief Minister said, “There is a proper consultative mechanism that is in place between the Government of India and the government of the People’s Republic of China and whatever necessary is to be done to ensure that the development does not become hostage to any sort of diplomatic activity we are doing necessary.” He said, “It is an ongoing process. It takes long time to settle border disputes. Large numbers of areas on border are with China that are still to be mobilised and to be agreed between the two countries as a result of that from time to time certain amount of difficulty we face but there are mechanisms in place which are used when necessary.” However, on plantation of an explosive device outside a wine shop in Srinagar which was later defused by the security forces yesterday, the Chief Minister said, “Militants keep making attempts to disrupt the peace but we will thwart their plans.