J&K govt scraps road project on China border: SM Krishna

The Centre today washed its hands off the decision to stop work along the Sino-Indian border in Jammu and Kashmir after Chinese protests, saying it had no role in either starting or halting the project and that it was entirely an affair of the State government.

External affairs minister SM Krishna told the Lok Sabha that the Centre was not consulted on the road project, and that it had come to know of it only through the media.

"The government of India had no role to play in starting the road project or halting (it). It was fully a decision which the Jammu and Kashmir government took," he said, replying to a short-duration discussion on relations with China in the backdrop of recent occurrences.

The work on a road project in Demchok in Ladakh region was stopped recently after China objected to it.

Krishna said India wanted good neighbourly relations with China, and had tried to "defuse" issues related to incursions, as it did not want to "enlarge the differences" into major differences.

He expressed the hope that India would be able to contain the incursions, while noting that these took place due to differing perceptions about the undemarcated boundary line.