Face off on between Indian army and PLA on LAC over civil work

A tense face-off is on between Indian and Chinese troops since on Wednesday in Demchok area on the Line of Actual Control after the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) objected to civilian work being undertaken by the Indian army engineers under MNREGA scheme.

The Chinese troops raised objections on Wednesday when Indian army engineers were constructing an irrigation canal linking ‘Hot Spring’ waters for the villagers in Demchok, located 250 km east of Leh, under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA). 

According to official sources, at around 1055 hours on Wednesday, there was a face-off between Indian army and PLA at ‘Hot Spring’ place, located in general area of Demchok which continued till night. In the morning, the Chinese troops again came to the LAC as soon as the Indian engineers started laying the water pipes and the face-off was continuing, the sources said.

Around 55 PLA soldiers arrived on the scene and halted the work in an “aggressive manner”, prompting the army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police(ITBP) personnel to rush to the spot and stop the “high-handedness” of Chinese troops, they said.

The Chinese troops took positions on the perceived Line of Actual Control (LAC) and demanded that work be stopped as either side needs to take permission from each other before undertaking any construction work, a claim disputed by the India which says that as per the agreement between the two countries, information about construction needed to be shared only if it was meant for defence purposes.