Surajkund: Union Home and Cooperation Minister, Amit Shah Thursday said that there had been a 34 percent decline in terrorist incidents and a 54 percent reduction in deaths of security forces in the past three years.
An official spokesman in a statement issued here said that addressing the first day of a two-day ‘Chintan Shivir’ (contemplation camp) at Surajkund in Haryana in which chief ministers and home ministers of states, and Lieutenant Governors and administrators of union territories are participating, Shah said, “Compared to 37 months before August 5, 2019, there had been a 34 percent reduction in terrorist incidents and 54 percent reduction in deaths amongst security forces in the 37 months after August 5, 2019.”
He said that after the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, 2019, there was a new beginning of peace and progress.
Shah said that the areas affected by Left Wing Extremism (LWE), J&K, and the North East, which were once hot spots of violence and unrest, were now becoming hot spots of development.
He said that the security situation in the North East had improved significantly in the last eight years and since 2014 there had been a 74 percent reduction in insurgency incidents, 60 percent in casualties amongst security forces, and about 90 percent in civilian casualties.
Shah said efforts had also been made to establish lasting peace in the region by signing agreements with the NLFT, Bodo, Bru, and Karbi Anglong under which more than 9000 militants have surrendered.
He said with the restoration of peace in the North East, AFSPA has been withdrawn from more than 60 percent of areas.
Highlighting the improvement in the situation in the LWE-affected areas, Shah said that the incidents of violence in these areas had come down by 77 percent and deaths in these incidents had reduced by more than 85 percent.
He said that taking inspiration from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, this ‘Chintan Shivir’, was being organised to provide a common platform to face challenges before the nation like cyber-crime, the spread of narcotics, and cross-border terrorism in unison.
Shah said that the nature of crimes was changing and becoming borderless and all states would have to battle these by having a common strategy.
“To formulate and implement this common strategy, the government led by PM Modi, under the spirit of ‘Cooperative Federalism’, ‘Whole of Government’ and ‘Team India’ approach is promoting the 3Cs – Cooperation, Coordination, and Collaboration between the Centre and the states,” he said.
Shah said that the government under the leadership of PM Modi had followed a zero-tolerance policy against terrorism and the NIA and other agencies were being strengthened to achieve a decisive victory over it.
Shah said that before 2024, efforts are being made to set up an anti-terror network by setting up NIA branches in all the states.
He said that to achieve a decisive victory in the fight against terrorism, the legal framework was being strengthened, under which provision had been made to declare individual terrorists by amending the NIA and UAPA laws.
He said that the NIA has been given extra-territorial jurisdiction and along with this the agency has also been given the right to confiscate the property acquired and related to terrorism.
Shah said that by 2024, a target had been set to establish branches of NIA in all the states of the country.
He said that most of the security hotspots in the country had become almost free from anti-national activities due to cooperation and coordination between the Centre and the states.
Shah said that the zero-tolerance policy of the Centre against narcotics was yielding good results and in the last 8 years, 3000 cases had been registered while drugs worth more than Rs 20,000 crore had been seized.
He said cybercrime was a big threat before the nation and the world and the Ministry of Home Affairs was ready to fight against it.
He said that the Ministry of Home Affairs was continuously working on reforms in CRPC, IPC, and FCRA and soon their revised blueprint will be tabled in Parliament.
Shah said that the states should make maximum use of forensic science to increase the conviction rate and the Centre had provided all possible help by forming the NFSU.
He also emphasised that border states would have to make more coordinated efforts with central agencies and security forces to ensure border security and coastal security.
Shah said that the government led by PM Modi had also taken several initiatives in disaster management and requested all chief ministers to personally monitor the implementation of these initiatives.
He said that there was a need to make proper use of all resources of internal security available to fight challenges before the nation.
Shah said that for this there had to be resource optimisation, rational utilisation of resources, and integration of resources, which would further improve coordination between the states.
He said that the government was working on the principle of “one data, one entry” and under this, NIA had been given a national database related to terrorist cases, NCB given a national database related to narcotics cases, ED a database related to economic offences, and NCRB given the responsibility of creating a fingerprint database – NAFIS and National Database of Sex Offenders (NDSO).
Shah said that under regulatory reforms, I4C which is the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre had been formed, a cyber crime portal created, a system to connect NatGrid set up, a private security agency licensing portal created, and reforms were done in the FCRA.
He said that under the FCRA reforms, action against some organisations involved in anti-national activities, conversion, political opposition to development projects, or propaganda against policies of the government had been initiated and under the amendment made in 2020 to prevent the misuse of foreign funding, effective monitoring had become possible.
Shah said that the government led by PM Modi was working on three major challenges in a time-bound strategy.
“First, complete planning for health services under which the Ayushman CAPF scheme was started and about 35 lakh health cards distributed and about Rs 20 crore disbursed. Second, increasing the housing satisfaction ratio. The level of residential satisfaction was around 37 percent in 2014, which has increased to 48 percent at present. Apart from this, with the creation of the CAPFs e-Awas portal, a target has been set to increase this level to 60 percent. Third, the age of policing, under which there is a provision of 100 days leave, raising the retirement age from 57 to 60 years and recruitment of 64,640 candidates,” he said.
Shah said that there was a need to move from the regional approach towards a thematic approach in policing.
He said that internal security was very important for the development, stability, and good governance of the nation and it was a common responsibility of all.
Shah said that the Centre and the states had equal responsibility in nation-building.
“A country can progress only when there is close cooperation between all agencies,” he said.
Shah said that the spirit of cooperative federalism should be the driving force during the Amrit Kal and expressed confidence that this ‘Chintan Shivir’ would further expand regional cooperation.