In bid to stop infiltration, conspiracy, Amit Shah announces 'Smart Border' project along Pakistan & Bangladesh

Shah said the charter for the High-Power Demography Mission announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be finalised in the coming days.

New Delhi: Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday announced that the union government will launch a ‘Smart Border’ project next year to make an “impenetrable security grid” to guard borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh to prevent infiltration and defeat the “conspiracy” to effect “artificial changes” to India’s demography.

Delivering the annual KF Rustamji Memorial lecture hosted by the BSF here, he also said the charter for the High-Power Demography Mission announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be finalised in the coming days as also launch a major programme for BSF and other paramilitary personnel so that the personnel can protect the borders “without worries” about their families.

In an apparent reference to the BJP now ruling West Bengal, he said he can speak with confidence that Tripura, Assam and West Bengal have governments that, as a matter of policy, believe that infiltration into the country must not happen. Tripura and Assam also have BJP governments.

Emphasising that the Modi government’s approach to terrorists is that the era for talks is over and it is in a way a declaration of a new defence doctrine, he said the Ministry of Home Affairs will roll out a comprehensive design plan in which technical assistance will be provided to transform the entire 6,000-kilometer border into a uniform smart border.

“Within the coming year itself, the government is moving forward with equipping BSF security systems with every kind of technology to create an impenetrable border security grid. Very soon, the MHA will present before the nation a Smart Border project equipped with drones, radars, advanced cameras, and all other modern technologies," he said.

Insisting that the government will not only stop infiltration but will also identify and expel every single infiltrator, he said, “we will not allow artificial changes in our demography. This conspiracy to alter the demographic balance is not something that the BSF alone has to stop,” he said.

Urging border-guarding forces to maintain communication with village officials, local police, District Collectors and Superintendents of Police, he said, they should know who is the new infiltrator in a locality, the route used by them and smuggling routes. It is the responsibility of the BSF to identify and completely shut down all these routes one by one, he said.

In the coming days, he said he will be holding a meeting with Chief Ministers of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam and will be creating a strong security grid from the perspective of infiltration control.

"Our soldiers have shown that merely managing or controlling a problem cannot be the approach to security. The real approach to security is to eliminate the problem from its roots, and today this has been proven. Now the BSF must move ahead with the same determination against infiltration as well," he said.

Maintaining that the next 3-4 years will bring a complete transformation in border security, he said the arrival of technological security does not reduce the responsibility of soldiers.

“With this spirit, by embracing technology, building communication with local people, and improving coordination with local administration, if we all together decide that this country must be freed from infiltration and that we must stop artificial demographic changes, then I do not think this is a very difficult task,” he said.