ITANAGAR, 25 Jun: The Galo Welfare Society (GWS) on Friday said it has taken serious note of the stoic silence maintained by the state as well as the central government over the Kimin episode.
In a press statement, the GWS said, “Neither the state nor the central government bothered to release any official statement to clear the doubts surrounding the issue even after one week.”
It said the BRO and the ITBP’s belligerent act of showing Kimin as part of Assam by covering several signboards displaying Arunachal’s name with paste/paper has greatly hurt the sentiments of the people of Arunachal.
The incident happened when Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated the 20 km Kimin-Potin and 11 other road projects handled by the BRO on 17 June.
The GWS said it supports the demand of various civil society organizations for an NIA investigation into the episode “to unearth the real motive and person(s) behind the whole episode.” It also demanded that the Centre appoint a senior Supreme Court judge to follow up the development of the NIA investigation till the investigation process is completed as the Arunachal-Assam boundary dispute is sub judice in the court.
“Any illegal attempt of distortion or alteration needs to be under the close scrutiny of the Supreme Court,” it said.
Meanwhile, the GWS said it is not satisfied with the quality and execution of road projects by the BRO in Arunachal, especially the Aalo-Kamba highway stretch, where “the strip plan and road geometrics have been seriously compromised, leading to many fatal accidents, as per the record of Aalo police station.”
It demanded that the state government bring all the highway projects being executed by the BRO and the NHIDCL under the ambit of third-party monitoring and constitute a technical evaluation committee “for road safety of the Aalo-Kamba highway being executed by the BRO or face stir.”
