New Delhi, Jul 27: Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah Sunday called for a data-driven defence mindset and pushed for a youth-led strategy.
Addressing the 8th National Security Strategies Conference (NSSC) in New Delhi, Shah paid homage to the soldiers who lost their lives during the Kargil War and saluted the efforts of the armed forces and BSF during ‘Operation Sindoor’.
He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s strong resolve and the support of fellow citizens sent a strong message of zero tolerance to terrorism across the world.
Pointing out that India’s economy had risen to the fourth position globally, Shah said that India was now a world leader in new and emerging technologies, start-ups, green energy, and innovations.
He said that India’s rising stature would lead to increasing national security challenges in the years to come.
Stressing that these challenges needed to be tackled through better coordination, Shah directed the formation of homogeneous teams of central and state agencies to develop strategies and implement and monitor them.
He also instructed the involvement of young Police officers in each state to brainstorm on national challenges and devise solutions to address them.
Shah said that this conference was significant in enabling senior officers to guide young officers, familiarise them with challenges, and show them the path to finding solutions.
He urged that the use of national databases like NATGRID, NIDAAN, iMoT, and CBI’s fugitive database be inculcated amongst young officers by including them in all training programmes.
“To address the challenges coming before the nation, a reliable ecosystem for real-time data sharing must be established,” Shah said.
He said that the PM Modi-led government had resolved numerous issues scattered across various states.
Shah emphasised that the next 5 to 10 years would be very important for the development and security of the country.
Observing that internal security challenges would remain dynamic given India’s geo-political neighbourhood, he exhorted the state Police forces and central security agencies to adopt the motto of ‘Security, Alertness and Coordination’.
Appreciating the achievements in the Left Wing Extremism areas, North East, and J&K, Shah asked Director Generals of Police (DGPs) to adopt a similar approach for effective implementation of the three new criminal laws and tackling the challenge of narcotics.
He advocated the need for a top-to-bottom and bottom-to-top approach in initiating action against big drug cartels, besides focusing on the extradition of narco-offenders.
Shah directed the DGPs to make it the prime agenda of the Police for the next three years on the path towards a drug-free India.
Pointing out that police stations were focal points of intelligence collection, he called upon the Police leadership to evolve a credible platform for sharing real-time information up to the police station level.
Emphasising the primary duty of the Police to protect the life, property and dignity of citizens, the Union Home Minister directed each state Police force and central agency to strive towards excellence, and nurture a spirit of healthy competition to address internal security challenges.
Stressing the need for all-round development in LWE-affected areas, he urged the DGPs to coordinate with state administrations to ensure the implementation of more than 300 central and state development schemes at the grassroots level.
Underscoring the importance of securing smaller seaports along our maritime borders, Shah emphasised capacity building of state Police to counter infiltration and smuggling activities.
He also reviewed the counterterror initiatives and directed that stringent legal action be taken against repeat offenders.
