Union Minister for Home and Cooperation, Amit Shah attends 51st Foundation Day event of Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) in New Delhi today as the Chief Guest.
New Delhi: The Union Home and Cooperation Minister, Shri Amit Shah attended 51st Foundation Day program of Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) in New Delhi today as the Chief Guest. Union Minister of State for Home Shri Nityanand Rai, Union Home Secretary, Director of IB, Director General of BPR&D along with several senior officers of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Police and Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) were also present on the occasion. Officers of police and CAPFs from different parts of the country also joined the event virtually. The Union Home Minister presented the best police training institutes the trophies and awards and also presented medals for excellence in police training. The Union Home Minister also released the publications of BPR&D and presented Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant Award in Hindi writing. The Union Home Minister also felicitated Tokyo Olympics 2020 silver medalist, Ms. S. Mirabai Chanu on the occasion.
In his address, the Union Home Minister said that it takes huge effort for an institution to maintain its relevance for 51 years and BPR&D has done it remarkably well and also proved its mettle. He said that maintaining its relevance is a big challenge as the times keep changing and the institutions also have to change accordingly.
Shri Amit Shah said that BPR&D is doing a very crucial work and during his last visit here, he had written in the visitor’s book that good policing cannot be imagined without BPR&D. Shri Amit Shah said that law and order is a state subject in the federal structure and to strengthen the federal structure, a link connecting the implementing agencies of all the states, that is, the police, and its federal organizations, is very important. He said that the challenges are faced from the perspective of the country, there are governments of different parties and ideologies in states, there are regional parties as well, apart from this, if law and order is to be ready to face the challenges, then there is a link to do that. If that link is not there, the law and order system of the country will collapse and in 51 years, BPR&D has done a great job of connecting all the states in terms of law and order in the country. He said that different states of the country have different policies and challenges and it was not possible for the states to meet these challenges until a central system assessing all these challenges, practicing its global parameters, do not work day and night to upgrade the force.
The Union Home Minister said that the country adopted democracy and republic after independence and democracy is the nature of our country and people. The greatest thing in a democracy is the freedom of the individual which is directly linked with law and order and democracy can never succeed without law and order. He said that democracy is when 130 crore people get an opportunity to develop themselves according to their ability and intelligence and the country gets benefitted of the cumulative effect of development of 130 crore citizens and develops. He said that without good law and order situation, democracy can never succeed. It is very important for a successful democracy that the safety of the individual is ensured, the rights which have been given to him under the law, he should continue to enjoy them freely and he should continue to discharge the duties that the Constitution has laid down for him. The Union Home Minister said that the work of maintaining law and order is done by the police in the country and all the forces engaged in securing the borders of the country. He said that BPR&D has done the work of upgrading, training and rectifying the shortcomings of all these forces and police institutions.
Shri Amit Shah said that the biggest contribution in making democracy successful is by the beat constable who ensures the safety of the citizen, otherwise democracy cannot succeed. He said that due to some unknown reasons, a campaign of sorts is going on to malign the image of the police, such as exaggerating some incidents and not giving adequate publicity to good deeds. Shri Shah said that the most difficult job amongst all the government personnel in the entire government is that of the police. The Union Home Minister said that when the whole country is celebrating festivals, the policemen are doing their duty, there is hardly any other government personnel having a harder duty than this.
Shri Amit Shah said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the Prime Minister of the country to the children of the country, everyone hailed the services of the police force. The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi showered flower petals on the police forces with a helicopter, and that day, it seemed that for the first time the police forces are getting appreciation and respect for their hard work. He said that during the pandemic, across the country from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Dwarka to Assam, police force did a very good job and this should be documented and a documentary should also be made on this and this good work should be remembered by the country and society for many years, taking together the police forces and CAPFs of all the states, because the sacrifices made by the police is less discussed.
Union Home Minister said that more than 35,000 police personnel have sacrificed their lives in various works in last 75 years and laid down their lives for the country and that is why Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi created Police Memorial and today it is situated in Delhi, which shows that the police, with 35,000 sacrifices, has always stood in the service of the nation with pride. He said that during his last visit to the Police Memorial, he had said that a documentary should be made of police sacrifices from different states across the country and it should be shown to the children who come here. 16 states have included the Police Memorial as a visiting site for children’s tours. He said that BPR&D should prepare good material for image building by compiling it from all the state governments.
The Union Home Minister congratulated Tokyo Olympics 2020 silver medalist Ms. S. Mirabai Chanu and wished her all the best for her bright future and hoped that next time she will bring glory to the country by winning a gold medal. He said that a lot is yet to be done for the convenience of the sportspersons in the country.
Shri Amit Shah said that challenges are not permanent, challenges keep changing before the country. He said that today cyber-attacks, drone attacks, narcotic smuggling, throw currency and hawala rackets are the biggest challenges. BPR&D is such an institution which should change its work according to the challenges. He said that the main task of BRP&D is to prepare our police forces by preparing them by studying the best practices around the world and assessing the changing challenges. The Union Home Minister said that basic policing cannot be good without improving the beat system. He said more work needs to be done to revive, update and upgrade the beat system. Shri Amit Shah said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India is doing a lot of work to bring about fundamental changes in CrPC, IPC and Evidence Act. He said that BPR&D has contributed very well in this endeavor. The Bureau has sent very good suggestions for change in consultation with many people, 14 States, 3 Union Territories, 8 CPOS, 6 CAPFs and 7 Non-Government Organizations.
Shri Amit Shah said that he also wants to add some things to the charter of BPR&D. Shri Amit Shah said that the BPR&D should also work to modernize, train, operate and enhance operation skills of CAPFs in view of the kind of border security challenges that have come before us today. He said that if necessary, the Ministry of Home Affairs will also amend your charter. Shri Shah said that he believes that BPR&D can do this work very well by taking everyone together. He said that it is very important for our land border and sea border to be safe and there should be no laxity in it.
The Union Home Minister also said that the Bureau should work for institutionalizing reforms that have been implemented on the ground. Without institutionalizing this system, we cannot know whether our reforms are practical or not and whether we have been able to motivate the police to implement these reforms. Therefore, there should be an institutional arrangement in BPR&D that how many police reforms that take place across the country get off the ground.
Shri Amit Shah said that the government which is running under the leadership of Modi ji has done a lot of work for the internal security of the country. He said that we have done a great job to strengthen the legal framework. We have changed many laws, made them timely and made such arrangements to give strength to the law enforcement agencies. The work of abrogation of Article 370 and 35A in Jammu and Kashmir, changes in CrPC, IPC, cyber security and the work of realizing the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s basic mantra of Minimum Government Maximum Governance has been done with full spirit. He said that at the same time we have started a campaign to crack down on narcotics by making amendments in NIA Act, changes in Arms Act, changes in UAPA Act, four tier structure through Narco. The Union Home Minister said that the police and the Narcotics Control Bureau across the country have broken their own record in the last 25 years by catching the maximum number of narcotics within the last two years.
Shri Amit Shah said that the government has made a lot of agreements in the Northeast. NLFT agreement, resettlement of Bru refugees, Bodo peace agreement and agreement with Karbi Anglong to be done this evening. He said that around 3700 armed cadres have surrendered and joined the mainstream. These people used to live in the jungle with weapons and in the last two years they have surrendered and returned to the mainstream. The Union Home Minister said that our aim is that we will make our sincere efforts to bring the weapons into the mainstream by communicating with those who lay down weapons and those who have weapons in their hands, the police can deal with them. But the avenues are open for those who want to communicate. He said that talks are going on with all the insurgent organizations at different levels.
The Union Home Minister said that in order to bring democracy to the lowest level in Jammu and Kashmir and to take democracy to the people of Jammu and Kashmir, three-tier Panchayati elections were conducted. He said that the meaning of democracy in Jammu and Kashmir is not limited to a few MPs and MLAs but also includes Panch, Sarpanch of every village. He said that 22000 people are contributing in this system. Shri Amit Shah said that this is a great achievement of the Modi government.
The Union Home Minister said that the establishment of National Defense University, establishment of FSL University, coordination of criminal justice system with CCTN has been done. At the same time, we are also working very fast in the direction of e-procedure and e-forensics. National Academy for Coastal Policing was also established in Gujarat, National Cyber Crime Portal has been dedicated to the nation, it needs to be made more popular. Shri Shah said that the Prime Minister of the country will soon dedicate NATGRID to the nation. He said that we have made a very good use of the Private Security Agency Licensing Portal at the national level. FCRA has also been radically changed. The Home Minister said that the internal security of the country is being handled by the police force, the borders of the country are being handled by our Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and the promptness with which our CAPFs are handling the borders and our police force is handling the internal security. We are in absolutely safe hands. But challenges grow, challenges change and overcoming these should be our goal to stay ahead of destabilizers and BPR&D can play a big part in this.
Shri Amit Shah said that the next decade is very important for internal security because of the way the country is progressing under the leadership of Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, we have set a target to become 5 trillion-dollar economy, many reforms are taking place, we have to ensure that all these continue unabated. Shri Amit Shah said that our police force and CAPFs across the country should be prepared after assessing all the challenges. The Union Home Minister said that it is our duty to take the idea of smart policing put forth by the Prime Minister on the ground. He said that BPR&D, in its journey to complete 100 years, will become even more relevant and move ahead under the leadership of the Director General.