NEW DELHI, 29 Dec: Pillars and fences along the borders are no match to alertness and bravery of soldiers guarding them, which is further augmented by patriotic villagers living in close vicinity to the forward locations, union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Thursday.
While launching a mobile application, ‘Prahari’, prepared in-house by the BSF and the manual of the border guarding force, Shah also suggested that, under the vibrant village programme, the personnel should make efforts for increasing tourism to villages but did not further elaborate on it.
“Security of the country’s borders cannot be ensured by pillars or fencing, but only by the bravery, patriotism and alertness of the soldiers standing on the border,” he said.
The home minister said the BSF guards the most difficult border of the country. After former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee conceptualised the ‘one border, one force’ policy, the responsibility of guarding borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh had come to the BSF.
Shah said that “the brave soldiers of the BSF are manning these borders with great vigilance, strength and promptness, as well as consistent efforts.”
He said the security of the borders can be ensured only when the border villages are populated. Along with the deployment of soldiers on the borders, only the patriotic citizens living in the village can provide permanent security and all the border guarding forces should strengthen them, he said.
“In the last three years, 26,000 kgs of narcotics and 2,500 arms and ammunition were seized by the BSF. Although the anti-drone technology on the border is still at the experimental stage, it has been successful to a great extent,” he said.
The home minister said that, in the last six months, the BSF has shot down 22 drones on the western border. Success is also being achieved against the drones carrying weapons to spread narcotics and terrorism with nefarious intentions, he said.
He said that fencing could not be completed at some places along the international border due to difficult topography, but the BSF has developed in-house technology for electronic surveillance there, the cost of which is very low but its efficiency is very high.
He said that the BSF personnel have been able to secure the border with continuous vigilance and construction of 140 kms of fencing, and that about 400 kms of roads has been completed in difficult places.
Along with this, Shah said, more than 120 border outposts have been constructed.
Shah said that the ‘Prahari’ app has been created for allotment of houses to the BSF personnel, and that within two months of its launch, the housing satisfaction ratio has increased by ‘10 percent.
The home minister told all the senior officers of the BSF that it is necessary that in the border districts all the welfare programmes run by the government of India and state governments should be fully implemented with the help of the district collector. (PTI)