Agartala, June 6 (IANS). Union Home Minister Amit Shah has given instructions to take major steps to stop the increasing drug smuggling and movement of illegal weapons on the India-Bangladesh border. He has asked to organize special camps to make people living in the areas adjacent to the border aware and trained.
Amit Shah on Saturday held a review meeting of issues related to border areas at BSF Tripura Frontier Headquarters in Shalbagan near Agartala. During this, he said that border security is not only the responsibility of the security forces, but is the collective responsibility of the entire region. Therefore, it is very important to increase people’s participation.
The Home Minister directed officials to organize special training and awareness camps for people living on the India-Bangladesh border. The presence of Patwari, local police and Border Security Force (BSF) personnel should be ensured in these camps.
In the meeting, Amit Shah also directed that the CCTV model of the Home Ministry should be implemented in Tripura first. He also ordered to upgrade all the cameras of BSF with modern technology and connect them with the district administration, so that the surveillance system can be further strengthened.
Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha, Chief Secretary JK Sinha, Director General of Police Anurag, and District Magistrates and Superintendents of Police of all the eight border districts of the state were present in the meeting. Comprehensive border management with better coordination between the state government and central agencies was discussed in the meeting.
Amit Shah said that the central government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is giving top priority to border security. He stressed that mere fencing will not suffice, but only with the coordination of local administration, smart technology and BSF, a completely secure and impenetrable border security system can be created.
The Home Minister directed to run a continuous campaign against drug and arms smuggling and to take strict action against the entire network related to this illegal trade. He also asked to keep a close watch on financial activities, suspicious transactions, construction of big buildings and buying and selling of property in the border districts. He also directed to get the land records of the last five years examined.
Apart from this, Amit Shah also talked about giving special training to collectors and GST officers and conducting a survey by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to investigate cases of fake currency.
–IANS
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