ITANAGAR, 27 Jun: Notwithstanding the clarification given by the BRO on the Kimin episode, the Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) on Sunday claimed that there was a bigger conspiracy behind it.
A ‘fact-finding team’ of the APCC, led by its vice president Techi Tegi Tara, visited Kimin subdivision, where the inauguration programme of the 20-km Kimin-Potin road, constructed by the BRO, had taken place.
The party said the team interacted with the officers and the public of the area, “only to find out that the BJP-led state government was hatching a bigger conspiracy beneath.”
“The Kimin-Potin road inauguration programme had taken place under the revenue jurisdiction of the Papum Pare deputy commissioner, whereas ‘Bilgarh’, Assam, as mentioned in the BRO road inauguration programme, is approximately 17 kms from the zero point of the Kimin-Potin road, which is adjacent to the Kimin ADC office,” the party said in a press statement.
It said the covering of the old signboards and the foundation stone on which the names of Kimin and Arunachal were inscribed was intentionally done and shown as being under Assam’s territory by the BRO, despite protest from the public.
The party said that the chief minister had a meeting with the BRO’s Project Arunank Chief Engineer (in-charge), Brig AS Chonker, three days prior to the inauguration of the Kimin-Potin road, and that under such circumstances, “the chief minister would have known all the foul play.”
“We are convinced that it definitely has ill motive to convert the undisputed Kimin headquarters to a disputed area and also to fuel the boundary tension between Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, especially when the boundary dispute between the two states is sub judice in the Supreme Court,” the statement said.
The party demanded a proper investigation into it, and called for bringing the culprits involved in it to book.
The APCC said that the statement issued by the BRO to the Papum Pare DC and the media was just eyewash.
“The BRO is a planted pawn of a bigger conspiracy. There is hidden unlawful motive with harmful purposes,” the party said.
It added that the entire fiasco showed a clear picture of how the BRO, the defence minister, the union youth affairs and sports minister and the chief minister of Arunachal undermined the state’s federal structure, violated the Arunachal Pradesh Statehood Act, 1987, and “intruded into the state’s subject by disregarding the constitution of India.”
“The very act of the four has incited hatred amongst the people of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, which a crime under the law of the land,” it said.
The APCC demanded explanations from the defence minister, the union youth affairs and sports minister and the chief minister of Arunachal.
It also demanded replacing the foundation stone of the Kimin-Potin road inauguration and the Subansiri Gate at the RTC-ITBP with new ones, with the names of Kimin and Papum Pare district written afresh on them, and relocating the interstate police check gate from its present location to the forest check gate welcome gate “for the safety of Kimin town.”
