Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday announced to open branches of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in all states across the country by 2024 as part of the Centre’s plan to build an anti-terrorism network.
The Home Minister made the announcement while speaking at the two-day ‘Chintan Shivir’ of Home Ministers’ of states here to prepare an action plan for the implementation of the Centre’s ‘vision 2047’ on internal security. The aim of the conference is also to facilitate national policy making and better planning and coordination.
The chief ministers of eight states and home ministers and deputy chief ministers of 16 states gathered at the event, which is being chaired by Amit Shah. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the session on Friday through video-conferencing. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar–both having charges of the Home Ministry of their states–skipped the event.
Addressing the ‘shivir’, Shah Said, “Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a zero-tolerance policy against terrorism and NIA and other agencies are being strengthened to achieve a decisive victory. Efforts are being made to build an anti-terrorism network by setting up NIA branches in all States before 2024.”
The Minister mentioned that areas affected by Left Wing Extremism, Jammu and Kashmir and the North East, which were once hot spots of violence and unrest, are now becoming hot spots of development. Noting that cyber-crime is a big challenge before the country and the world today, Shah said the Ministry of Home Affairs is committed to battle against it. The Home Minister also said that the Central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is promoting the three C’s approach– Cooperation, Coordination and Collaboration— under ‘Whole of Government’ and ‘Team India Approach’.
He later mentioned that Modi-led government is determined to save the country and the youth from the menace of narcotics and our policy is showing results, under which drugs worth more than Rs. 20,000 crores have been seized so far.