Working on bolstering coastal security: Shah
AHMEDABAD: The Union government is working towards making coastal security strong and impenetrable by using new technologies, Union home minister Amit Shah said on Saturday.
“Under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we are working towards making coastal security strong and impenetrable by using new technologies. We are seriously assessing the challenges to coastal security to address maritime threats,” Shah said during a visit to the National Academy of Coastal Policing (NACP) in Gujarat’s Devbhumi Dwarka district.
The academy, located near the coastal town of Okha and run by the Border Security Force (BSF), was conceptualised in 2018 as the country’s first school to train police and paramilitary forces personnel in various aspects of coastal security.
During an interaction with the officials at the academy, the home minister appreciated the efforts taken by the BSF Gujarat Frontier and NACP to establish the institution in an area with adverse weather conditions and geographical challenges, the BSF said in a release.
Shah also expressed confidence that in future the academy would provide intensive and high-level training to the marine police of various coastal states in the country and make a significant contribution to the security of coastal areas.
Gujarat BSF’S Inspector General
G S Malik informed the home minister that 427 personnel from nine coastal states, including Gujarat and Maharashtra, and four Union Territories along with officers of the Customs, BSF and CISF have been given training at the academy in the last six months.
Talking to the media, BSF director, General Pankaj Kumar Singh, said the government has set itself a target of imparting training to 3,000 personnel in one year.
The BSF’S water wing operates nearly 450 vessels in the country and has an experience of 40 years in coastal security, he said.
Shah, who is on a two-day visit to the state, offered prayers at the famous Dwarkadheesh Temple in Dwarka town earlier in the day.
“Prayed for the development and progress of the nation by having ‘darshan’ of Lord Krishna at Shri Dwarkadhish temple in Dwarka,” Shah tweeted in Hindi.
Later in the day, Shah announced that the Centre and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) will soon undertake an ambitious project to computerise around 65,000 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) in India.
Addressing the ‘Sahkar Se Samruddhi’ conclave of cooperative entities in Gandhinagar, the Union cooperation minister said the Centre was planning to bring in several amendments to the Multi-state Cooperative Societies Act, 2002.
“There are nearly 65,000 PACS in the country. We have decided to computerise all these PACS with the help of NABARD. This will prove to be a revolutionary step for our agricultural finance credit system. There will be common software for all PACS, and NABARD will get details on a daily basis, such as daily business and recovery of these PACS,” said Shah.
“We are also bringing in a lot of amendments to Multi-state Cooperative Societies Act. Work is also on preparing a national database of cooperative entities, as there is no such database at present in the country. We are also in talks with state governments to change the audit system for cooperative societies,” said Shah.