Give info on drones carrying drugs, get ₹1-L reward: Police
To keep tabs on movement of UAVs and smuggling, state govt has sanctioned ₹20 crore for installation of CCTV cameras along the International Border
AMRITSAR : Around three months after Punjab governor Banwarilal Purohit’s visit to the border areas for increasing coordination between the state and central agencies to tackle the threat of drone being used to smuggle arms, ammunition and drugs from Pakistan, the first high-level coordination meeting between Border Security Force (BSF) and Punjab Police was held in Amritsar on Wednesday.
The meeting was jointly chaired by Punjab Police’s special director general of police (DGP) Arpit Shukla and BSF’s Punjab frontier inspector general (IG) Dr Atul Fulzele. Deputy inspector general (DIG) border range Amritsar and Ferozepur Narinder Bhargav and Ranjit Singh and senior superintendents of police (SSPs) of seven border districts also took part in the meeting.
“For making policing more effective in the border areas, the meeting was conducted with BSF’s officers,” said DGP Shukla. After the meeting, Shukla said the state DGP, Gaurav Yadav, has announced a reward for providing information related to the drone based smuggling.
“Any persons giving information leading to the recovery of drones, weapons or narcotics will be awarded with ₹1 lakh reward. People are coming to the fore supporting the BSF and police, which is the reason why consignments are being recovered. The information about the reward will be passed on to general public and awareness will be generated about the ill-effects of drugs,” he added.
The reward scheme will be activated in all seven border districts of the state. This scheme is different from the BSF’s reward scheme. Last year, in April, the BSF had also announced a similar reward.
Shukla further informed that Punjab chief minister has also sanctioned ₹20 crore for strengthening security of the border. “Under this project, surveillance will be increased at the strategic locations. Night vision CCTV cameras and DVRs will be installed. The main motive of the project is to tackle the movements of drones being used for smuggling of arms, ammunition and narcotics,” he said.
“In the last few months, BSF and Punjab Police have worked together achieving big successes. However, our motive is to completely stop the smuggling by increasing the border patrolling, besides educating the people living in the border areas,” he added.
Shukla said drone-based smuggling remained a big challenge since 2019. However, we are now able to detect the drone threats with the use of technology and information, he said.
Talks related to the strengthening of border patrolling, second line of defence and community engagement were also held in the meeting.
The special DGP said that it was high time that both the elite forces should work in tandem and better coordination to counter the drone operations at Punjab border, which has emerged as a new threat. He also stressed on the need to carry out evidence-based and proactive policing to prevent the smuggling of narcotics and weapons into Punjab from across the border.
He asked the BSF officials to share inputs of movements of suspected persons with the Punjab Police so that they can keep a sharp vigil on their activities and ensure penal action against those found involved in any criminal activity.
Shukla directed the CPs/SSPs to increase the police checkpoints, especially at night, in their respective jurisdictions and ensure checking of maximum vehicles at every naka, which will help in curtailing the terrorist and criminal activities. He advised that all the Nakas should be synchronised in a manner that they must get activated promptly on a single call.
He also proposed to activate Village Defence Committees (VDCs) in the border areas to counter the nexus between smugglers and criminals in the border areas. “These committees will work as eyes and ears of the police and supplement efforts of Punjab Police to wipe out drugs, terrorists and gangsters from the border state,” said the special DGP.
In February, the governor had conducted his third visit in the border areas in the last ten months. During his visit, the governor had put the AAP government in dock stating that drugs were sold from grocery stores. The governor had also said that the drugs have reached in schools and colleges. He had stressed to increase coordination between the state and central security agencies.
As per media reports, the governor has scheduled his next visit in the border areas on June 7 and 8.