Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said that security situation in Northeast India has improved significantly in the last eight years. He said since 2014 there has been a 74 per cent reduction in insurgency incidents, 60 per cent in casualties amongst security forces and about 90 per cent in civilian casualties.
The Union minister was addressing the opening of the two-day Chintan Shivir of state home ministers held at Sarajkund, Haryana, which is being held from October 27-28. The event aims to provide a common platform to face challenges before the nation such as cyber-crime, spread of narcotics and cross-border terrorism in unison.
Amit Shah said efforts have been made to establish lasting peace in the Northeast region by signing of agreements with the NLFT, Bodo, Bru, Karbi Anglong under which more than 9,000 militants have surrendered. With the restoration of peace in the North East, AFSPA has been withdrawn from more than 60 per cent areas, he said.
The incidents of violence in Left Wing Extremism affected areas have come down by 77 per cent and deaths in these incidents have reduced by more than 85 per cent, he added.
Efforts are being made to set up an anti-terror network by setting up NIA branches in all the states by 2024, he further said.
Shah said that to achieve a decisive victory in the fight against terrorism, the legal framework is being strengthened, under which provision has been made to declare individual terrorists by amending the NIA and UAPA laws.
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 / related to terrorism, he said.
“Today most of the security hotspots in the country have become almost free from anti-national activities due to mutual cooperation and coordination between the Centre and the states,” he said.
Shah said the zero tolerance policy of the Government of India against narcotics is yielding good results and in the last eight years, 3,000 cases have been registered while drugs worth more than Rs 20,0000 crore have been seized.
Amit Shah said cyber-crime is a big threat before the Nation and the world today and the Ministry of Home Affairs is ready to fight against it. He said that the Ministry of Home Affairs is continuously working on reforms in CRPC, IPC and FCRA and soon their revised blueprint will be tabled in Parliament.
Shah said states should make maximum use of forensic science to increase the conviction rate and the Central Government has provided all possible help by forming the NFSU. He also emphasized that border states will have to make more coordinated efforts with Central agencies and security forces to ensure border security and coastal security.
Shah said the Modi-led Central Government has also taken several initiatives in disaster management and appealed to all chief ministers to monitor the implementation of these initiatives.
There is a need to make proper use of all resources of internal security available to fight challenges before the nation, he said, adding that for this there has to be resource optimization, rational utilisation of resources and integration of resources, which would further improve coordination between the states.
Shah said the government is working on the principle of "one data, one entry" and under this, NIA has been given a national database related to terrorist cases, NCB has a national database related to narcotics cases, ED has a database related to economic offences and NCRB has been given the responsibility of creating a fingerprint database – NAFIS and National Database of Sex Offenders (NDSO).
He said under regulatory reforms, I4C i.e. Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre has been formed, Cyber Crime Portal has been created, a system to connect NatGrid has been set up, Private Security Agency Licensing Portal has been created and reforms have been done in the FCRA.
Under the FCRA reforms, action against some organizations involved in anti-national activities, conversion, political opposition to development projects or propaganda against policies of the Government have been initiated and under the amendment made in 2020 to prevent the misuse of foreign funding, effective monitoring has become possible, the minister said in a release issued by the Union Home Ministry.
Chief ministers of states, home ministers of states and Lieutenant governors and administrators of Union Territories are participating in the event.
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