Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said the value of recent drug seizure off the Kerala co🌠ast was more than the cumulative value of narcotics seized during the ten-year rule of Congress-led UPA government at the Centre before the BJP came to power in 2014.
H🐎e also said the♋ lapses in coastal security led to the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.
Shah made these comments while laying the foundation stone for the permanent campus of the National Academy of Coas🅰tal Policing (NACP) at Okha in Gujarat's Devbhumi Dwarka district.
"The Indian Navy and Coast Guard caught drugs worth Rs 12,000 crore off the Kerala coast recently. This is more than what was caught in an entire year in the past. Duri༺ng ten years of UPA, narcotics worth Rs 6🧸80 crore were seized. And we have caught drugs worth Rs 12,000 crore in one instance. It proves that the security scenario has improved," the home minister said.
Nearly 2,500 kg of methamphetamine worth a🔯round Rs 12,000 crore was seized from a vessel in Indian waters along the Kerala coast in a joint operation by the Navy and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) around a week back.
"Security experts have admit𒊎ted that India's security has strengthened and citizens living inside the country and near the border feel safer after Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed office in 2014," said Shah.
He said Modi first strengthened Gujarat's security as its chief minister (before 2014) and now he is trying to secure the country with the♚ cooperation of different state governments.
Referring to the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, when Pakistan-based attackers entered the city through sea route without any trouble, Shah said lapses in the coastal security led🌱 to the tragedy.
The Congress-led UPA was🔯 in power when ten terrorists attacked Mumbai on November 2ꦫ6, 2008.
"This country paid a huge price for the lapses in our coastal s෴ecurity. No patriotic citizen can forget that tragedy when 166 innocent citizens lost their lives due to the lapses in our security set-up. Our country faced humiliation in the world due to the Mumbai terror attack," said 🀅Shah.
Under the Modi government, a holistic policy on coastal security is being folloဣwed and "enemies"ꦅ; planning to do similar misadventures will be given a befitting reply now, he said.
"Earlier, there was no specialised training for jawans of the Border Security Force, Coast Guard and the Coastal Police of different states and Union Territories. But, after the Mumbai terror atta༒ck, it was felt that there should be uniformity in the response of our forces guarding our coastline. For that, they must get training in a well-planned manner," the home minister said.
He told the audience that PM Modi gave 🌳clearance to start NACP at Okha to fulfil this purpose in 2018.
Notably, NACP, the country's first national academy to train police force💮s in effectively safeguarding the shoreline, started functioning in 2018 from the campus of the Gujarat Fisheries Research Centre.
NACP was set up to provide intensive and high-level training to marine poli♓ce of nine coastal states, five UTs as well as the Centra😼l Police Forces, said a BSF release.
According to Shah, some people, including those from the media, had raised concerns when the allocation of funds for border🌺 areas increased after Modi became prime minister nine years ago.
"What they meant was that funds should be allocated more in areas inside the country where population density is higher. 🦄I want to tell them that there is no meaning of development in the country if our borders are not safe," he said.
Before attending the NACP event, Shah, who arrived in Gujarat on Saturday morning on a two-day visit, offered pra🦹yers at the famous Dwarkadhish temple hereꦦ. He also met Dwarka peeth Shankaracharya Swami Sadanand Saraswati.
-With PTI Input
