Villagers prevent Indian Air Force chopper from landing in ALG

Our Correspondent

Itanagar: Anguished over the breach of an agreement between them and the Indian Air Force (IAF), the local residents of Vijaynagar in Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh, on Wednesday did not allow an IAF helicopter to land at the Advance Landing Ground (ALG).

Villagers spread themselves across the ALG runway to prevent the landing of the helicopter, State Food & Civil Supply Minister Kamlung Mossang informed quoting a former Zilla Parishad member from Vijaynagar who informed him about the incident. Residents of 11 villages of nearby Vijaynagar had on January 20 last voluntarily cleaned the ALG runway which had accumulated grass and moss due to its non-operation by any fixed-wing aircraft since 2016.

The IAF project intended to meet its operational needs in the east.

The villagers who pay Rs 150 for one kilogram of large size cardamom for manual transportation to Miao due to lack of road connectivity, had accepted the cleaning offer on the condition that the choppers which return empty to Miao would carry large size cardamom produced by them.

It may be recalled here that the renovated Vijaynagar ALG, located on the tri-junction of India-China-Tibet, since its inauguration by the then Arunachal Pradesh Governor Gen (Retd) JJ Singh on November 18, 2011, after landing of an IAF’s AN-32 transport carrier, had turned a boon for the needy and poor people of the valley. It was one of the eight ALGs, renovated by the defense ministry under the 2008 Prime Minister’s package.

Also Read: Arunachal News