The Government may have been hiking its Defence Budget over the years to protect India’s borders, but Union Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma has a unique solution to deal with the aggression from the neighbouring countries like China: “Set up religious sites along the border areas. Pilgrims thronging them would prove a deterrent to intrusions”.
On Wednesday, at an event to launch Heritage Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY), under the Urban Development Ministry, Sharma said had there been a religious site at Aksai Chin, China would not have acquired the Indian territory.“If there was a religious place in Aksai Chin, China would not have the courage to trouble us and we won’t have to be worried about our border security...Set up a pilgrimage site, there will be solution to the problem...Our religious places such as Mata Vaishno Devi and Amarnath are protecting our borders,” he said.
To substantiate his observations, he said that every year lakhs of pilgrims are visiting these areas which deter the neighbourhood countries from intruding into the borders.Aksai Chin, spread over about 40,000 square kilometres in Jammu & Kashmir’s ladakh region, have repeatedly been claimed by China and firmly rejected by India. It is, however, controlled and administered as part of the Chinese autonomous region of Xinjian.
Welcoming the UD Ministry’s move to launch the Rs500 crore project, Sharma said, “Urbanisation is a must but it should not be at the cost of heritage. We have rich culture and heritage and we have to protect them at any cost.”Under HRIDAY which aims at preserving and rejuvenating the rich cultural heritage. Under the first phase of the programme, the Government has selected 12 cities Ajmer, Amritsar, Amravati, Badami, Dwarka, Gaya, Warangal, Puri, Kanchipuram, Mathura, Varanasi and Vellankanni.
“No nation can move forward ignoring its cultural heritage and legacy. India is a diverse land of languages and religions and we need to preserve the legacy of all kinds. HRIDAY is a step towards reviving the soul of cities hosting such rich heritage,” Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu said.The HRIDAY will be dovetailed with the Tourism Ministry’s Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Augmentation Drive (PRASAD) scheme which has an outlay of Rs100 crore for augmentation of infrastructure at pilgrimage sites across the country.