SC to consider MoD plea to construct roads along China border

The Supreme Court will consider on February 19 the application of Ministery of Defence (MoD) blaming red tapism and Supreme Court-appointed Centrally empowered committee (CEC) for delay in construction of roads within the radius of 50 kms along the China border.

Ministry of Defence (MoD) in its application which is pending since March 2009 has said China is in a state of full preparedness while on Indian side 33 road projects which are vital for national security have got stuck due to lack of coordination among government agencies as well as CEC.

MoD has appealed to the apex court to grant exemption for these road projects along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) along the China border.

A special bench of the Supreme Court comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices S H Kapadia and Aftab Alam has been monitoring all construction in reserved forest areas and national parks.

The MoD in its application has said legal system of the country would have never thought of interfering with the matters of national security.

CEC has, however, blamed MoD and Union Ministry of Home Affairs for delaying the clearance of such important projects and CEC has always accorded top priority to these projects and sometimes clarification have been taken on telephone to clear these projects expediteously and 17 out of 33 road projects along the China border have already been cleared.