NEW DELHI: While calling upon all the states and Union Territories to work in unison to tackle inter-state and trans-national crimes like terrorism, cyber-offences and smuggling of weapons and drugs via drones, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday appealed to the chief ministers and home ministers of various states to upgrade their law and order systems with ‘smart’ technological solutions developed via a common platform to ensure uniformity and intra-operability.
Addressing the ‘chintan shivir’ — a conference where home minister Amit Shah, chief ministers, state home ministers, LGs and administrators of UTs and senior officials of various Central and state police forces spent the last two days discussing a common roadmap to fight internal security challenges and make India a developed nation by 2047 — Modi pointed to attempts to disturb public peace through fake news and sought technological advancement to timely stem its spread. He said there is need to educate the common people about analysing and verifying any piece of information before they forward it to others. To highlight how a piece of single fake news has the capability to snowball into a matter of national concern, he cited the past instance of fake news about job reservations that had resulted in losses to the country.
The prime minister also sought the states‘ help to obliterate the ground network of terrorism. Particularly focused on tackling Left-wing extremist ideology being propagated and some “intellectuals” he stated: “Every form of Naxalism, be it the one with guns or the one with pens, they have to be uprooted to prevent them from misleading the youth of the country.” Warning that such forces are increasing their intellectual sphere to pervert the minds of coming generations, Modi said they cannot be allowed to flourish “for the sake of unity and integrity of the nation”.
The prime minister used the Chintan Shivir platform to moot the idea of a common uniform for state police forces across the country. This, he said, will give a common identity to law enforcement as citizens will recognise police personnel anywhere in the country. States can have their number or insignia, Modi suggested. “One Nation, One Police Uniform’…I am just putting this forward as a thought for your consideration,” he said while asking the states to take their time to mull the suggestion.
Underlining that crime is no longer localised and instances of interstate, international crimes are going up, the prime minister said this was exactly why mutual cooperation between state agencies and between central and state agencies is becoming crucial. Emphasising the need for technological upgrades to tackle criminals that are now operating seamlessly across physical barriers, Modi said that 5G technology, along with its benefits, brings the need for a heightened alert. While mentioning the Police Technology Mission of the Central government, Modi stressed the need for a common platform as differing technologies of different states do not talk to each other. “We should have a pan India outlook, all our best practices should be interoperable and should have a common link,” he suggested.
Highlighting that the laws enacted by Central government over the past few years reflect a will to strongly handle corruption, terrorism and hawala, Modi on Friday urged the states to also evaluate their own rules and laws and get rid of ones that are outdated.
The Prime Minister highlighted that in the last eight years, the number of Naxal-affected districts in the country has come down significantly. “Be it Jammu and Kashmir or North East, today we are moving fast towards permanent peace. Now we have to focus on rapid development in all these sectors including infrastructure,” he added.
Modi also shared that the Central government is working on a mission mode for development in the border and coastal areas to promote reverse migration. Stating that this could help curb the smuggling of weapons and drugs in these regions, he sought increased cooperation from the border and coastal states to get the plans into execution.
Emphasising the link between the law and order system and development of the states. “It is very important for the entire law and order system to be reliable. Its trust and perception among the public are very important,” he said while pointing out now NDRF and SDRF, with their timely and effective response to natural disasters, and police forces, by rising to the Covid-time challenges, have improved their perception among the public.