India to have ‘vibrant’ border villages to counter China’s territorial claims

The VVP will focus on the construction of village infrastructure, housing, tourist centres and road connectivity, among other provisions

The government is set to roll out a Vibrant Villages Programme to develop the sparsely populated habitats along the disputed India-China boundary, apparently to counter the neighbouring communist country’s ploy to expand and cite settled population to buttress its expansive territorial claims.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the new Vibrant Villages Programme (VVP) for the hamlets on the northern border — the disputed India-China boundary — while presenting the Union Budget 2022-23 in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

“Border villages with sparse population, limited connectivity and infrastructure often get left out from the development gains,” she said, adding: “Such villages on the northern border will be covered under the new Vibrant Villages Programme.”

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The VVP will focus on the construction of village infrastructure, housing, tourist centres, road connectivity, provisioning of decentralised renewable energy, direct-to-home access for national TV network Doordarshan and educational channels as well as support for livelihood generation.

The Finance Minister said that the Union Government would provide additional funding for implementing the VVP and developing the border hamlets. Besides, existing government schemes will also be converged to support the roll-out of the VVP, she said.

The move is apparently aimed at making it easier for people to live in villages along the India-China Line of Actual Control (LAC) and dissuading them from migrating to other places.

New Delhi has been worried as the thinning population on its side of India-China Line of Actual Control (LAC) could prove to be a disadvantage for it in its boundary negotiation with Beijing.

The India-China boundary negotiation led by the Special Representatives of the two governments remained stalled since the two sides engaged in a military stand-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh in April-May 2020.

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But New Delhi suspects that Beijing is trying to strengthen its territorial claims in anticipation of a resumption of negotiation in future. China is not only building villages in the territories of India and Bhutan, which still has non-demarcated land boundaries with the communist country, but also by renaming places in Arunachal Pradesh in Tibetan and Mandarin Chinese.

New Delhi has been increasingly worried over the intent of the communist country to take advantage of the Agreement on Political Parameters and Guiding Principles for Settlement of the Boundary Question, which India and China had signed in 2005.

Article VII of the 2005 agreement states that the two sides shall safeguard the interests of settled populations in the border areas while clinching a deal to resolve the boundary row. C

hina’s new Land Border Law, which came into force on January 1, also emphasises on the development of villages and towns in the border areas and the role of civilians in protecting sovereignty and territorial integrity, indicating its plan to expand settlements along its disputed boundaries with India and Bhutan.

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