ITANAGAR, Jun 26: The Border Road Organization (BRO) today sought unconditional apology over the Kimin-Potin road row fiasco and stated that it was ‘unintentional’ and without any ‘mala fide intention’.
The apology was sought by BRO ADG P K Singh in a virtual press conference here today. ADG Singh who brief the media and sought apology to the people of the state for the Kimin incident wherein the Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Union Minister of state for Sports and Youth Affairs and CDS take part at Kimin in Arunachal Pradesh on June 17 last for pasting of Arunachal Pradesh name in few signboard which portrait as Assam.
“The unfortunate incident is nothing more than an inadvertent mistake, just happened in the pressure of organizing the event while racing against the time. In no way, BRO had even an iota of mala fide intention of hurting the sentiments of people of Arunachal Pradesh. It should be taken as an unconditional apology, due to the emotive connection that BRO has with people of the state,” said ADG Singh.
“We did not intend to hurt the sentiments of our beloved brothers and sisters of Arunachal Pradesh in any way. Any action whatsoever happened was completely unintended, I pardon for forgiveness by the people of state”; he added.
ADG Singh claimed that the confusion was created due to miscommunication. He claimed that during a casual discussion over the proposed inaugural event a day before the inauguration, someone in their rank mistakenly noted Kimin as in Assam.
As for claims by BRO Chief Engineer that the act of the alleged cover up of Kimin as in Arunachal Pradesh was due to strategic reasons, the BRO ADG said that no such orders were communicated from any authority concerned and that it was completely unintentional.
“Even there were no orders from the central government to remove the name of state from various signboards on the specific day of road inauguration,” he said, adding that he has no idea why the BRO Chief Engineer made such a statement for ‘strategic reasons’.
He also informed that the unfortunate incident of selection of site was totally inadvertent. The event was initially planned from a place called Huri in Kurung Kumey district of Arunachal, but was shifted to the plains due to prevailing monsoon conditions.
The e-inauguration site was chosen due to administrative reasons to facilitate the entire event smoothly. The chosen site also had a helipad and a covered shed to cater for any eventuality due to rains, as had been forecasted, he added.
The further informed that whatever mistake was held was corrected on the day of inauguration and there was no intention to ask for forgiveness for the act.
