‘Committed to develop border areas’
The minister of state for home, Kiren Rijiju, has stressed on the need to review the border management policy to give push to development work in the region.
He said the Centre was committed for greater development in the border areas to ensure they were as developed as other regions. The minister said a nation begins from its borders and not the capital.
Mr Rijiju was speaking after the inauguration of a conference on ‘Smart Border Management and Coastal and Maritime Security’, organised by the India Foundation and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (Ficci).
The minister also released a FICCI-PwC report on ‘Smart Border Management’, which deals with threats faced by various agencies in managing an effective coastal security mechanism.
The report mentions how India’s vast coastline poses a number of security challenges like illegal landing of arms and explosives at isolated spots along the coastline, infiltration, using the sea route for criminal activities and smuggling.
According to the report absence of any physical barriers along the coastline, which has a number of vital industrial and defence installations, increases the vulnerability of the coasts to illegal cross-border activities.