Following is the text of opening statement
of Union Home Minister Shri Sushilkumar Shinde in monthly press conference of
Ministry of Home Affairs at New Delhi today.:-
“During the month I visited Border areas in Jammu &
Kashmir, Punjab and Assam.
2. On 6-7th
October, 2012, I visited Kargil & Leh districts of Leh-Ladakh region. I discussed the developmental issues with the
Council Members, Chief Executives, Ministers of J&K and officials of Leh
& Kargil Autonomous Hill Development Council. I also visited Border out post of ITBP at Lukumbe
on Indo-China border at the height of 15000 ft. and interacted with Jawans and
participated in Sainik Sammelan.
3.
I visited the Integrated Check Post at
Attari on 7th October, 2012 and reviewed the progress of ongoing
works with Punjab Government and Central Government officials.
4.
From 12th to 14th
October, 2012, I visited Jammu and
Kashmir Region.
I visited Trade Facilitation Centre at Chakan Da Bagh in Poonch District
and interacted with traders the various issues relating to LoC trade and
travel. I visited Border out Post of BSF
at Suchetgarh in R.S. Pura in Jammu
district and inspected the border fencing and interacted with Jawans guarding
the international border.
5.
I along with the Chief Minister chaired
the Unified Command meeting in Srinagar
and reviewed the security situation in the State. I also met senior police and army
officers. Development issues were
discussed with Chief Minister, J&K and senior government officers. The progress of the Dal conservation project
was reviewed by me. I also visited the
famous Hazratbal shrine and met public.
I attended a school function and met young people, boys and girls who
came from across the valley to study in the School.
6.
I went around the city with the Chief
Minister and visited many significant public places including the main bazaar
near the Lal Chowk area. I met with a number of tourists and interacted with
traders and shopkeepers.
7.
I also visited the famous shrine of
Charar-E-Shariff along with local leaders.
At Srinagar,
several delegations, prominent citizens, MLAs and others made representation to
me.
8. I visited the Indo-Bangladesh Border
from 19.10.2012 to 20.10.2012. I started from Dubri in Assam and then travelled by boat for an hour
covering about 40 Kms in river Brahmaputra
crossing riverine Border Out Post (B.O.P) Mahamayachar and landed at Shishumara
B.O.P. Thereafter I travelled by road alongside international boundary and
inspected the fencing, floodlighting and Border Roads, before taking off from
Mankachar. I have instructed the concerned agencies to address all the gaps
because of the riverine terrain urgently through technology, so as to ensure
better surveillance. I have also
instructed the Border Security Force to enhance the surveillance on the Brahmaputra River. A high level delegation led by
DG, BSF has been deputed to Israel
to see the technological development for border surveillance in such areas.
9. As a welfare measure, the Cabinet
Committee on Security (CCS), on 1st November, 2012, has approved the
proposal of Ministry of Home Affairs to designate the retired Central Armed
Police Force (CAPF) personnel as “Ex-Central Armed Police Force (Ex-CAPF
personnel)”. The above designation shall
boost the moral and motivation level of the CAPF personnel and it shall enable
the various State Governments to provide specific benefits to the retired CAPFs
personnel.
10. A Tripartite Memorandum of Settlement
(MoS) among the Central Government, Government of Assam and the factions of
Dima Halam Daogah (DHD) and DHD/Joel Group was signed on 8.10.2012. The Memorandum provides for enhanced autonomy
for the North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council in Assam and a special package for
speedier socio–economic and educational development of the area for which the
Council has been set up.
11. The 13th meeting of the Home
Secretaries of Bangladesh and India
was held on 16-17 October, 2012 at Dhaka. The
issues relating to security, border management, enhancement of cooperation of
law enforcement agencies on smuggling of arms and narcotic drugs, construction
of ICPs/LCSs within 150 yards of Zero Line, increased joint patrolling to curb
criminal activity along the border, mechanism of regular consultation between
the DC-DM of border districts for resolving the local issues, cooperation for
apprehension of wanted criminals, liberalisation of visa precedence, etc. were
discussed. The implementation of Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters,
Agreement on Transfer of Sentenced Persons and Combating Terrorism, Agreement
on Organized Crime and Illicit Drug Trafficking, ratification of Land Boundary
Agreement (LBA)-1974 by the Government of India and protocol signed in 2011,
were also discussed.
Internal Security
12. On 15th
October, 12, a Special Court of National Investigation Agency for the
State of Kerala
was notified. This Special Court
will be presided over by the Hon’ble Judge Mr. P. K. Lakshmanan.
North East
13. A new Border Liaison Office (BLO) has been
set up in Arunachal Pradesh Sector at Changlang in Arunachal Pradesh vis-à-vis Pan Hsuan(Myanmar). The 1st
meeting of Border Liaison Officers (BLOs) was held on 30th October,
2012 at Changlang to work out the modalities for operationalization of BLO.
14. In the current year upto October 31,
2012, 186 extremists were neutralised in Police encounter. During the said period 1836 extremists were
arrested and 1165 surrendered before the State Authorities.
Jammu & Kashmir
15. 11th meeting of the Project
Appraisal Committee was held on 01.10.2012 in which proposals of CMC Limited
and Cognizant Technology Solutions under the Special Industry Initiatives (SII)
Scheme for J&K were approved.
16. An amount of Rs.14.52 crore under SRE has
been reimbursed to Government of Jammu & Kashmir on 12.10.2012.
Naxal Management
17. A meeting of Chief Secretaries / Director
Generals of Police of all Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected States was held on
18.10.2012 to review the security and development related intervention in LWE
affected States.
18. On 23.10.2012, Rs. 221.60 Lakh were
released to the CRPF for carrying out Civic Action Program in naxal affected
areas.
Central
Armed Police Force (CAPF) :
19. During the month, an amount of Rs.16
crore for acquisition of land and about Rs.328 crore for construction of
office/ residential buildings were sanctioned for CAPFs.
20. On the recommendation of the Election
Commission of India, 60 Companies of CAPFs were mobilised for Assembly
Elections in Himachal Pradesh from 25.10.2012 to 05.11.2012.
21. The Ministry of Home Affairs on 17th
October 2012, gave in principle approval for the proposal of the Ministry of
External Affairs to deploy an armed contingent drawn from any of the CAPFs at
the Embassy and the Embassy residence in Tripoli.
Foreigners
22. During the month, the
Integrated Online Visa Application System (under the Mission Mode Project on
Immigration Visa and Foreigners Registration and Tracking) has been
operationalized in the Indian Missions at Buenos Aires,
Argentina; Lima,
Peru and Sao Paulo, Brazil.
This facility is now operational at 93 Indian Missions abroad.
23. The
State Governments/ Union
Territories have been
given access to Prior Reference Cases (PRC) Visa Applications data using
Virtual Private Network (VPN). They are clearing the PRC cases online through
VPN and the decision is communicated electronically to Indian Mission. The PRC
applications from IVFRT enabled Indian Missions are also being uploaded to
central server for electronic clearance by agencies. Till date, my Ministry has
cleared over 1, 45,000 PRC cases electronically.
24. Gorkhaland Territorial Administration:
In terms of clause 14 of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA)
agreement, the Government of India has released Rs. 65 crores to the State of
West Bengal out of Rs. 200 crores for the current year for projects to develop
socio – economic infrastructure in GTA areas in Darjeeling District of the
State.
25. Crime
and Criminal Tracking Network Systems (CCTNS): Under the Crime and Criminal Network Tracking
and System (CCTNS), till October 2012, Contracts with System Integrators have
been signed in 26 States/UTs, advance payment to BSNL has been made in 23
States/UTs and Service Level Agreement (SLA) with BSNL for Networking Solution
has been signed in 26 States/ UTs.
Disaster Management
26. NDRF personnel were deployed along with
Boats, Vehicles, Medical First Responder and collapsed Structure Search and
Rescue and other equipments for response and relief activities in Assam (299 personnel, 34 boats), Andhra Pradesh
(9137 personnel, 14 boats), Bihar (200 personnel, 29 boats), Maharashtra (217
personnel, 11 boats) and Sikkim
(35 personnel, 2 boats). In all 11,283
persons were rescued/ evacuated and 28 dead persons were retrieved in these
States.
Border
Management
27. Land identification of 116 out of 131 Coastal Police Stations
under Coastal Security Scheme has been finalized and land acquisition process
in 74 cases has been initiated till October, 2012. Land identification for 27 Jetties out of
60 has been done by Coastal States/UT’s. Site for 10 Marine Police Operational
Centers have been selected. Rs. 33.57 crore has been released in October, 2012
for construction of Coastal Police Stations, Jetties and operationalisation of
Coastal Police Stations.
28. Government
has sanctioned 27 ITBP priority roads along Indo-China border totalling 804 Km.
against which 557.30 Km formation and 175.36 Km surfacing has completed as on
date. 50 Km of floodlighting work was
completed during the month of October, 2012 along the Indo-Bangladesh Border.
29. An outlay of Rs.990 crore has been
earmarked in the budget of 2012-13 under Border Area Development Programme and
the same has been allocated to the 17 border
States. Against this an amount of Rs. 752.45 crore
(76%) has already been released to all the 17 BADP States as first installment.
Union Territory
30. Union Cabinet, in its meeting held on 18th
October, 2012 has approved the waiver of loan plus interest thereon for Tsunami
affected fishermen in Andaman & Nicobar Islands. 370 Tsunami affected fishermen of Andaman
& Nicobar Islands were having outstanding loan plus interest thereon
amounting to about Rs.2.10 crore, as on 31st March, 2012.
State
Legislation
31. During
the month, the President of India assented to the
Chhattisgarh Rent Control Bill, 2011, the Code of Criminal Procedure (Karnataka
Amendment) Bill, 2009 and the Registration (Tamil Nadu Amendment) Bill, 2012.
Creation of National Population Register (NPR):
32. The capture of biometrics is in progress
in the States of Manipur, Nagaland, NCT of Delhi, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka,
Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal.
As on date, biometrics has been captured for more than 6.86 crore persons,
adding 98 lakh persons during the month. Data Entry has been completed for more
than 89.76 crore persons, adding
7.63 crore during the month.”
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KSD/PKM