Govt plans for settlement of people along Sino-Indian border

Government is planning to settle people in sparsely-populated areas along Sino-Indian border and train them so that they can inform security forces of any suspicious activity in the frontier.
A government source said such an action is necessitated as there is no population in many stretches along the 3,499-km- long Sino-Indian border.
Some areas either do not have any population or are very thinly populated.
Security forces will encourage villagers to move closer to the border and remain vigilant about the activities across the border or those of border guards of China.
"The villagers will be trained to be ear and eye of the forces and inform them whenever they see any suspicious activity," the source said.

Such a move is expected to end the problem of keeping the border unguarded for long when the security forces go on long patrol.

Government is planning to construct roads, provide drinking water and power to those people who would be keen to settle along the border.
The source said due to the lack of basic infrastructure, many villagers have moved away from the international border and started living as far as 50 km away from the frontier, creating a vacuum.
The source, however, ruled out the possibility of giving arms training to those who are willing to be the 'ear and eye' of the security forces along the border.