Alarmed by the Chinese army’s aggressive posturing along the Line of Actual Control in Leh, the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) has urged the union government to take up the issue with the visiting Chinese defence minister so that development works that have been stalled could resume in the far-off areas of Leh.
LAHDC’s appeal comes one-and-a-half months after the People’s Liberation Army forced the Jammu and Kashmir government to suspend work on a prestigious irrigation scheme in the Kuyul-Thuksey area of Nyoma block in Leh.
DNA was the first to report the Chinese army’s designs in Leh district last month.
“We have sent a letter to the state government giving all the information (about the project). The state will certainly take it up with the Centre and they, in turn, will raise this issue (with China’s defence minister),” said Rigzin Spalbar, chief executive councillor of LAHDC.
This is the third time in the last three years that a major development project was suspended or abandoned under the Chinese pressure in Leh district of Ladakh division.
In 2010, the Chinese army forced the state government to suspend work on passenger sheds being constructed near the China border at Demchok area in Leh district.
Earlier, a road project was abandoned after Chinese army objected to its construction.
