Army’s Demchok mission a success

Chinese troops had tried to obstruct the work, but the Indian side held firm and laid a pipeline

Army teams along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh.—PHOTO: DINAKAR PERI

The Army has completed laying an irrigation pipeline for residents of villages in the Demchok region of Eastern Ladakh despite a face-off last week with Chinese troops over the work.

The irrigation project was being built under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to link a village with a “hot spring”.

Hut as protest

In order to protest the laying of the pipeline, Chinese troops attempted to erect a fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP) hut on the border on Friday. However, the Army and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) did not allow that. Officials said the Army had fortified the area and prevented Chinese forces from further entering into Indian territory.

While the three-day face-off ended on Saturday, the Army engineers continued the work on laying a pipeline for nearly a kilometre and completed the work on Sunday. Last Wednesday, the Chinese side objected to the work saying that no construction was allowed on the border as per earlier agreements.

However, the Indian side countered it, saying the restriction applied only to defence constructions. A face-off ensued.

This is the first time since 2014 when the Chinese Army had come deep inside the Indian territory in Demchok in protest against an ongoing irrigation project.

(With inputs from PTI)