Joint police team of 8 northeastern states need of the hour: Sonowal

Bijay Sankar Bora

Tribune News Service

Guwahati, June 29

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Thursday said a joint police team of all eight northeastern states is the need of the hour to tackle the common challenges faced by the forces in the region.

Inaugurating the two-day 24th conference of North East DGPs/and heads of Central Police Forces held here under the aegis of Intelligence Bureau, Sonowal said installing an omnipresent sense of security among the people of the northeastern states was a must so that people could work hard in peace for the prosperity of the region that had been termed as the new engine (NE) of growth for the entire country by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Sonowal underlined the need for technology-focused modernisation of the police forces of all the N-E states to overcome the common challenge posed by techno-savvy insurgent groups as well as the rising trend of cyber crimes and cross-border crimes, smuggling of weapons, etc.

The Chief Minister called upon the state police chiefs of the region, central police forces as well as the IB to focus on building a smart police force to overcome the hurdles posed by the common anti-national elements and facilitate fast development of the region.

Assam DGP Mukesh Sahay pointed out that the insurgents, arms smugglers, drug dealers and other criminals and anti-social elements considered the inter-state boundaries of the region as facilitators for their operations. He, therefore, called for more technology-driven synergy among police forces of all the N-E states and mooted the concept of Northeast Police for the purpose.

The DGP lauded the growing coordination among N-E state police forces that has been instrumental in putting militancy in the region on the backfoot. He called upon the conclave to explore effective ways to ensure fast coordinated action on the basis of intelligence shared among the state police forces. 

Assam Chief Secretary VK Pipersania, who is also the administrative head of the counterinsurgency unified command structure in Assam, mooted the N-E police concept to jointly tackle common challenges like insurgency, cross-border crimes and disaster management in the region.