Following is the text of the opening statement of Union Home Minister Shri Sushilkumar Shinde at the Monthly
Press Conference of the Ministry of Home Affairs here today:-
“A meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) on ‘Border Infrastructure’ was held on 1st November 2013, under the chairmanship of Hon`ble Prime Minister. The following issues were discussed in the meeting :-
(i) Management of unsettled Borders
(ii) Connectivity of Border areas
(iii) Border Guarding Arrangements
(iv) Communications and Perception Management
(v) Trading Points and Border Haats
(vi) Illegal Migration
(vii) Handling of criminal activities.
(viii) Surveillance and Intelligence
(ix) Recommendations relevant to different Borders and Coastal Security.
I chaired the meeting of the Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Home Affairs on the 18.10.2013 in New Delhi and discussed the issues relating to Naxalite problem.
On 1st November, 2013, I met Government of Vietnam Delegation, led by General Tran Dai Quang, Hon’ble Minister of Public Security in New Delhi. We discussed bilateral security matters. An Agreement on transfer of sentenced persons between India and Vietnam was also signed by me on behalf of the Government of India and Hon’ble Minister of Public Security on behalf of the Vietnam Government.
On 29.10.2013, I distributed the awards to 39 CAPF/State Police sports persons, who won Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals in the World Police and Fire Games, held at Belfast (Northern Ireland) from 1st to 10th August, 2013.
The Judge, Special Court of NIA convicted 13 persons and awarded them the sentence of life imprisonment in a case pertaining to prosecution of 24 accused persons belonging to Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) for indulging in terrorist activities and recruiting the youngsters from Kerala for training to wage ‘Jihad’ against India.
A meeting of the Joint Working Group was held with National Democratic Front of Bodoland (RD) at Guwahati on 23.10.2013 for finalization of Suspension of Operation (SoO) Agreement. Next meeting for signing of SoO Agreement with NDFB(RD) will be held shortly at Guwahati.
An Agreement on Transfer of Sentenced Persons between India and Russia was signed on 21.10.2013, at Moscow by the Foreign Secretary of India and the Minister of Justice of Russia.
On 22.10.2013, a sanction for an estimated cost of Rs. 1368.53 crore was issued for establishment of Central Armed Police Forces Institute of Medical Sciences (CAPFIMS), at Tigri, New Delhi. The CAPFIMS will have a 500-bed General Hospital, a 300-bed Super Speciality Hospital, a Nursing College and a School of Paramedics.
In the context of the Telangana agitation, the law & order situation in Andhra Pradesh was reviewed and deployment of additional 75 Companies of CAPFs (RAF-04, CRPF-26, BSF-33 & CISF-12) was extended upto 09.11.2013 for maintaining law and order in the State.
The law and order situation, in the context of communal violence in some parts of Uttar Pradesh, was reviewed and the deployment of 78 Companies of CAPFs (RAF-10, CRPF-36, BSF-11, SSB-17 & ITBP-04), was extended for different periods ranging from 16.10.2013 to 14.11.2013.
The law and order situation in Meghalaya was reviewed and the deployment of additional 15 Companies of CAPFs (CRPF-08 & BSF-07) was extended upto 15.11.2013.
On the recommendation of Election Commission of India, additional 600 companies of CAPFs / SAPs have been deployed for Assembly Elections in five States.
The Ministry of Home Affairs, in consultation with naxal affected States, the Central Armed Police Forces and other stakeholders, formulated a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to deal with hostage situations in the LWE areas. This SOP was circulated to the naxal affected States and other stakeholders on 7th October, 2013.
On 15.10.2013, an amount of Rs. 8819.70 lakh was released, to the LWE affected States of Andhra Pradesh (Rs. 652.01 lakh), Bihar (Rs. 339.23 lakh), Chhattisgarh (Rs. 2816.41 lakh) and West Bengal (Rs 1047.10 lakh), for the year 2012-13, under the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) Scheme for LWE affected States, as reimbursement of the expenditure incurred by the these States on Anti-naxal operations
During the month, an amount of Rs.22.72 crore was released to the State Government of Jharkhand (Rs. 16.87 crore) and West Bengal (Rs. 5.85 crore) under the scheme for Construction/Strengthening of Fortified Police Stations.
Under the Special Industry Initiative Scheme for Jammu and Kashmir, known as UDAAN, the Project Approval Committee, in its meeting held on 01.10.2013 and 01.11.2013 approved proposals of five corporate namely Ratnakar Bank, CGI (Conseillers-en-Gestion-et Informatique) Group, Indian Overseas Bank, MC Graw-Hill Education and Genpact Limited to train 2055 graduates/ post graduates in Banking services, Quality Engineering and Testing, Education and Skill Development, Finance and Accounting over a period of five years.
The India-Pakistan Joint Judicial Committee on Prisoners visited the Central Jails in Amritsar, Delhi and Jaipur between 25.10.2013 to 31.10.2013 and interacted with Pakistani prisoners lodged in these jails.
The 2nd meeting of Project Clearance Committee (PCC) of Special Infrastructure Scheme (SIS) was held under the Chairmanship of Additional Secretary (NM), MHA on 23.10.2013 to consider the utilization of funds released to the States under the scheme during the Eleventh Five Year Plan and to approve the project proposal for the year 2013-14 of States of Bihar (Rs. 20.08 crore) and Chhattisgarh (Rs. 21.79 crore) for upgradation/ critical gap filling of special forces.
A Judicial colloquium on Anti Human Trafficking was held at the High Court, Chhattisgarh at Bilaspur on 06.10.2013 to create awareness among the Judicial Officers.
An amount of Rs.493.74 crore has been released to the States up to 31.10.2013 as against an allocation of Rs. 990 crores for the year 2013-14 under the Border Area Development Programme.
A delegation led by Shri Rajiv, DG, CISF; Shri Sudhir Kumar, DIG, CISF and Shri Prashant Nikam, Director (Police), MHA visited Tel Aviv, Israel from 7th October, 2013 to 10 October, 2013 for open discussion, display of weapons and equipment, professional visits to relevant facilities and units, meeting with Government officials and visit to relevant Israeli Industries.
On 4th October, 2013, an amount of Rs. 7 crore was released to the State Governments of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Nagaland for Upgradation of Counter Insurgency & Anti-Terrorists Schools (CIATs).
An amount of Rs.12.33 crore was sanctioned to the CAPFs for acquisition of 131.74 acres land and an amount of Rs.78.48 crore were sanctioned to CAPFs for construction of office/residential buildings.
Out of a total allocation of Rs.1847.00 crore for 2013-14 under the Scheme for Modernization of State Police Forces, an amount of Rs.32.33 crore was released during October, 2013 to the State Government of Himachal Pradesh and the Ordinance Factory Board for construction purposes and for purchase of Arms and Ammunition respectively. A total amount of Rs. 827.92 crore has been released under this Scheme upto 31.10.2013.
The First meeting of the Security Commission, Chandigarh under the Chairmanship of the Union Home Secretary was held on 11th October, 2013 at New Delhi.
Under the Crime and Criminal Tracking System (CCTNS), upto October 2013, contracts for System Integrated (SIs) have been signed in 32 States/ UTs. 13102 out of a total of 16709 CCTNS sites have been prepared and 10287 CCTNS sites have been commissioned by BSNL with regard to network connectivity. As part of capacity building under CCTNS, 7.9 lakh training courses have been conducted. Funds to the tune of Rs. 272.21 crores has been utilised out of total released amount of Rs. 493.91 crores.
Integrated Online Visa application system (C-Visa) has been operationalized in the Indian Mission at Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago. This facility is now operational at 127 Indian Missions abroad.
Biometric enrolment software has also been operationalized in the Indian Missions at Switzerland, Geneva and at Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago. This facility is now operational at 30 Indian Missions abroad.
The Indian Partnership (Kerala Amendment) Bill, 2011, the Societies Registration (Uttar Pradesh Amendment) Bill, 2011, the Registration (Assam Amendment) Bill, 2013, the Gujarat Educational Institution Service Tribunal Bill, 2006, the Bombay Shops and Establishments (Amendment) Bill, 2011 and the Manipur Compulsory Registration of Marriages Bill, 2008 were assented to by the President of India during the months of October, 2013.
During the period from 21.9.2013 to 20.10.2013 the Narcotis Control Bureau seized 49.125 Kg of heroin, 16.4 Kg of cocaine, 80.293 Kg of pseudo-ephedrine tablets, 27.5 Kg of pseudo- ephedrine powder, 20.25 Kg of opium, 8 Kg of ganja and 232 gms of Alprazolam. The combined conservative cost of the seized drug was about Rs. 13.35 crores. 19 persons including six foreigners (1 Maldivian, 1 Canadian of Indian Origin, 3 Nigerians and 1 South African) were arrested for their involvement in drug trafficking.
The data entry in respect of National Population Register has been completed for more than 117.75 crore persons. The capture of biometrics, using UIDAI enrolment software has been done for more than 19.7 crore persons, adding one crore persons during the month”.
