‘Village Defence Committee’ in the border area to assist in drug eradication

GS Paul

Amritsar, June 8

As part of a concerted effort to strengthen the border security and combat the persistent challenges posed by infiltration and drug smuggling, the Governor of Punjab Banwari Lal Purohit emphasised on forming Village Defence Committees (VDC) in 10 km radius from the villages bordering India-Pakistan International Borders (IB) to assist the security agencies in curbing drug menace in six border districts.

Accusing the neighboring country of pushing drugs into Indian territory, he said ‘in my personal opinion a surgical strike should be conducted to teach Pakistan a lesson for launching a “hidden war” against India, as Pakistan was doing so as it was unable to engage a direct confrontation against India’.

At the GNDU premises, the Governor, in the presence of DGP,announced special honour for three best members of the VDC from each border district and award them Rs 3 lakh to the one who occupies first place, Rs 2 lakh and Rs 1 lakh to the runners up, respectively, on the state level Republic Day function.

The purpose of his fourth official visit in the border villages was to assess the existing security measures, understand the threat evolution and boost the morale of the natives.

Nonetheless, he showed satisfaction in the improvement of channels and coordination between the Border Security Force, the Indian Army, the police and the administration machinery in dealing with the drug menace.

“My motive was to meet with the state and central agencies to get feedback and to improve the interaction between them, so that the smuggling of drugs and weapons from across the border could be stopped for the eradication of drugs and trafficker,” he said.

He observed that the drug menace is prevalent in border belt areas of Amritsar and Tarn Taran, the most. “During my interaction with the panches and sarpanches of various villages, I was told that even the school children were hooked to drugs, probably, for its easy availability as their place was bordering Pakistan. We have to stop it completely. Not officially, but I personally believe that a surgical strike should be launched,” he said.

He showed concern about not having an antidote of a drone which was being misutilised to smuggle in drugs, weapons and other forbidden materials from across the border.

Lately, the ‘Drone Emergency Response System’ has been launched by DIG Border Range Narinder Bhargava to stop smuggling through drones in Pathankot border area. The Governor instructed to implement this system in the entire border area.

Under this strategy, the ‘Village Police Officer’ (VPO) and two members of the VDC posted in the border village will be on guard all night. Whenever the movement of the drone is seen, they will raise all the committee members,inform the nearby police station and control room.

DIG Narendra Bhargava said as soon as a consignment is dropped through drone, the VPOs will activate the VDCs, who as first responder, would cover all sealing points, roads, kacha roads, secluded areas, houses of suspected anti-National elements, smugglers and criminals of that particular village.

In this way, the consignment dropped from the drone and the local smuggler who came to take it could also be nabbed by the police. CCTV cameras too were being installed at the border areas.

“We have been evolving strategies to have coordinated efforts of all stakeholders and agencies. The VDC is the addition in this direction, the members of which would be keeping a hawk eye round-the-clock on daily roster basis. The periodic meetings of the local VDCs would be conducted by the local police officers, SHOs and also by the SSPs and SPs regularly. A Whatsapp group too would be made functional for day to day interaction and sharing information,” he said.

As a backup, all the villages on zero line will be listed, district-wise. In the Border Range, Amritsar 106 villages are within 2 km of the zero line, 148 villages within 2 to 5 km of the zero line and 188 villages within 5 to 10 km of the zero line. In the first phase of 106 villages in 2 km, a list of smugglers, couriers, drug peddlers, anti-social elements, and habitual offenders along with criminal records of the last 1o years along with their available phone numbers will be prepared.