India
pti-PTI
Amit Shah said to make internal security impenetrable, the police have to be empowered and the Modi government and the home ministry will fully cooperate with states.
New Delhi, Jan 20: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said Indian security agencies have succeeded in establishing their supremacy and no one can ignore the country anymore in any field.
In his address at the inaugural session of a three-day conference of DGPs and IGPs here, Shah said India is now definitely safe, strong and on a good footing under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Modi will also attend the conference of director generals and inspector generals of police being held at the National Agricultural Science Complex in Pusa here, according to a release issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
“Since 2014, the prime minister has taken a keen interest in the DGP conference. Unlike the symbolic presence of prime ministers earlier, he sits through all major sessions of the conference,” it said.
The prime minister not only listens patiently to all the inputs, but also encourages free and informal discussions so that new ideas can come up, the PMO release said.
This provides a congenial atmosphere for the top police officials of the country to directly brief the prime minister on key policing and internal security issues, and give open and frank recommendations, it said.
The release said guided by the vision of the prime minister, the conference has started discussions on futuristic themes in policing and security.
On the conference’s first day, the home minister also distributed the police medal for meritorious service and gave trophies to the top three police stations of the country.
Topics such as security challenges along the land borders with Nepal and Myanmar, strategies to identify overstaying foreigners in India and targeting of Maoist strongholds were discussed, officials said.
Over the next two days, the top police leadership of the country will deliberate on emerging security challenges and opportunities along with experts, field functionaries and academia.
“Under the leadership of Modi, Indian security agencies have succeeded in establishing their supremacy. Today, no one can ignore India in any field, nor anyone can stop you from moving forward,” he said.
Shah said earlier the country’s problems were geographical, now the problems are becoming thematic, and for this security agencies have to bring about a paradigm shift in their strategy and approach.
“Earlier we had single dimensional problems, but now the problems are multi-dimensional. To deal with them, we have to be two steps ahead of those who commit crimes. We have to change the method of urban policing rapidly. Even on capacity building of the police, a lot of attention has to be paid,” he said.
Shah said to make internal security impenetrable, the police have to be empowered and the Modi government and the home ministry will fully cooperate with states.
Referring to the situation in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370, he said there was a time when children from Jammu and Kashmir used to go to study in other parts of the country due to militancy. “But today 32,000 children from other parts of the country are studying in Jammu and Kashmir which has reflected the trust of the people there and also that of the nation,” Shah said.
“Similarly the amount of investment that has come in the last four years is more than what it had come to Jammu and Kashmir in the last 70 years,” he said.
Shah said normalcy has returned to Jammu and Kashmir and that is why 1.80 crore tourists visited the union territory in 2022.
“In Jammu and Kashmir, terror incidents, deaths and terrorist-dominated areas have drastically diminished. Today, we can say that Jammu and Kashmir is slowly heading towards peace and stability,” he said.
“I congratulate the Jammu and Kashmir Police, CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force), BSF (Border Security Force), IB (Intelligence Bureau), RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) as their efforts are slowly bearing fruit,” the minister said.
On the upcoming G20 meetings and summit, the home minister said everyone knows that India is chairing the G20 and the prime minister has made an unique effort of selecting 56 cities to host more than 200 G20 meetings.
Lauding the effort of security agencies, he said that “so far, on the question of internal security, we have been successful in maintaining peace in the country by and large despite many odds”.
“I congratulate all of you for your efforts to strengthen the security apparatus. The police forces, paramilitary forces and central agencies have responded promptly in challenging times, which has also been appreciated by citizens,” the home minister said.
In his address at the conference, organised by his ministry and the Intelligence Bureau, Shah said that Jammu and Kashmir, the northeast and the Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected areas were the three hotspots.
Under Modi’s leadership, the situation has drastically improved there, he said. “This shows that we are on the right track and our goal lies at the end of our path,” the minister said.
Shah said the government has removed the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act from 30 per cent area in the Northeast and asserted that this has not been done to fulfil any political demand.
“We assessed the situation and removed it, after we found it normal. It shows that there is increasing peace in the Northeast and a steep decline of more than 42 per cent in violence in the region,” he said.
On LWE, Shah said security agencies have attained massive success in taming Maoist terror.
In 2010, there were 96 LWE-affected districts. This has now come down to 46, he said.
Shah said that security vacuum has been plugged and he was sure that security agencies will be able to take absolute control of the situation.
In LWE-affected regions all kinds of violence have witnessed a 40 to 60 per cent decline, he said.
He emphasised Modi’s vision of making India a developed nation by 2047 and a five-trillion-dollar economy by 2025. Highlighting internal security achievements in Jammu and Kashmir, northeast and LWE-affected regions, the home minister laid the roadmap for tackling challenges in the next 10 years.
He mentioned capacity-building of the police forces and securing critical infrastructure sectors, apart from specialised approach to protect digital public goods.
Shah advocated better Centre-state coordination for addressing challenges of narco smuggling, Hawala operations and urban policing.
