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Delhi has neglected North East : Defence Minister |
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The fact that the troubled North East has been constantly neglected by the Centre, was admitted by Defence Minister A.K. Antony during his first ever visit to Sikkim on Dec. 2.
Referring to the rapid infrastructure development by China on their side of the border with the North East, the Defence Minister said : “I admit we were not able to develop infrastruc¬ture in the border areas. There is no use accusing others,” he said.
Antony said the Chinese have been developing infrastructure “very fast” on their side.
“In the past, North East has not got enough attention. We have realised the development of the entire region is very im¬portant,” he said.
The Defence Minister said it was the Government’s respon¬sibility to provide facilities like “modern roads, rail links and air links.”
Antony denied reports of China damaging two forward posts built by India. “Nothing like this has happened on Indian territory”, he said.
He said the two countries have varying perceptions of their borders and were trying to resolve their disputes at various levels. “This is the first time that India-China dialogue has taken place,” Antony said, referring to the talks held in Novem¬ber.
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