Galwan Valley incident part of larger Chinese design: Capt. Amarinder Singh

Terming the Galwan Valley incident as part of a larger design on the part of China, Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh said that India should not make the mistake of dismissing the incident as a patrol clash but should take a firm stand against any Chinese incursions into the Indian territory.

The amount of build-up in Galwan Valley showed that the Chinese were working on a plan, said Capt. Amarinder Singh, adding that India could not afford to lose even an inch of its land in the area, which is of huge strategic importance for both sides. “We have all seen clashes in our time, with Pakistan and even with the Chinese, and this is definitely not a patrol clash,” he stressed.

Referring to the map of the area, the Chief Minister said the Chinese had reached right halfway through to the Siachen Glacier after Pakistan ceded the northern part of Shaksgam Valley in PoK in 1963. Beyond that there is an area that is any case belongs to China, he explained, adding that “there is a little gap between the glacier and the Aksai Chin area, which is the Daulat Beg gap, which they are trying to close”.

“We have to take a strong position, and we should be clear that if we lose even an inch of land we must hold them responsible,” he said at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) video conference convened by the party’s interim president Sonia Gandhi, with former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi among the participants.

The Punjab Chief Minister also cornered the Centre over its failure to support the state in its fight against COVID-19, pointing out that all that Punjab had received so far from the Centre was its own Rs 2800 crore for January to March period, and just a few other grants. He said that GST dues for April to June were still pending.

Despite repeated pleas and memorandums, no help was forthcoming from the Centre to the state government for tackling the COVID-19crisis, he said, adding that the Government of India was not giving even the state’s own share. The state had not received a single paisa of the Rs 20,000 lakh crore package announced by the Prime Minister, he said, noting that with the estimated shortfall of Rs 25,000 to 30,000 crorethis year, and the rest going into the COVID-19war, the situation for Punjab was bad.

The Punjab government was forced to manage on its own to create resources for fighting COVID-19, said Capt. Amarinder Singh, adding that he was sure other states were in the same unfortunate position. Nobody is listening to us, he lamented, adding that he had to put aside Rs 35 crore to arrange for 500 trains to send 5.63 lakh migrants back to their homes.

The Punjab Chief Minister said that with 2.33 lakh of the total 2.52 lakh industries in Punjab now reopen, migrants were now also coming back to the state. His government, he said, was trying its best to get the industry back on track with all possible facilities and easing of norms, but the units were currently working at 40 per cent capacity and would take some months to return to their full strength.

Even on this count, the Central government was not extending any help, said the Chief Minister, citing the example of the large number of units that had started manufacturing PPE kits on request from the Government of India. Now the state was in a position to produce 15 lakh PPE kits every day but there were no buyers, he said, adding that he had written to the Prime Minister for permission to export these kits.

Briefing the CWC about the COVID-19 situation in the state, Capt. Amarinder Singh said sampling and testing was being continuously enhanced and a micro-containment strategy had been adopted to check the spread of the pandemic. The number of cases was, however, still rising, mainly on account of the increased testing and the large number of people coming from outside, including other states and countries.

Apart from Ludhiana and Jalandhar, one of the worst affected districts was Amritsar, where all the international flights were landing, including from the highly-contaminated Gulf region, he revealed. The other big problem area was the thousands of people reaching Punjab every day from Delhi, where the situation was extremely bad, he said, adding that many of these people were not reporting themselves and had to be traced and tracked, including in villages.

Capt. Amarinder Singh said his government was fully geared to tackle the spread of the pandemic and was continuously scaling up its preparedness in terms of beds, isolation centres, testing labs, PPE kits, masks, ventilators and oxygen kits etc.