Collective responsibility of states & Centre to tackle borderless crimes: Amit Shah
Surajkund (Haryana): Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said some NGOs have indulged in religious conversion, anti-national activities and misuse of funds to stall the country's economic progress, and strong action has been taken against such entities.
He also said that even though law and order is a state subject, crimes have become borderless due to advancement of technology and success can be achieved against such trans-border crimes only when states and the Centre sit together and formulate a strategy to curb them.
Addressing a two-day 'Chintan Shivir' of home ministers of all states organised by the Union home ministry here, he said that the government has amended the Foreign Contributions (Regulations) Act (FCRA) which was being misused by some NGOs to conduct anti-national activities, religious conversion, political opposition to development projects and creating obstacles in economic progress.
"In 2020, the government took strong action to stop foreign funding of such NGOs by amending the FCRA," he said.
Shah also said that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) will set up at least one office in all states by 2024 to develop a strong anti-terror network.
The home minister said it is the collective responsibility of states to effectively tackle crimes being committed from across the country's border or states' borders, and also deal with regional crimes to make society free from fear.
"In our Constitution, law and order is a state subject...but we can be successful against trans-border or borderless crimes only when all states sit together to ponder over them, make a common strategy and (make) efforts to curb them," he said.
The nature of crime is changing in today's world and crime is becoming borderless, that's why the states have to formulate a common strategy to fight against it, he said.
Shah reiterated that it is the collective responsibility of states and the Centre to effectively tackle trans-border crimes.
The 'Chintan Shivir' is being organised with the objective to prepare an action plan for the implementation of 'Vision 2047' and 'Panch Pran' announced in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Independence Day speech.
The 'shivir' can become a good platform to discuss strategies to counter cyber crimes, narcotics and cross-border terrorism, among others, and to exchange good practices in law and order, he said.
Shah also said that a large number of proposals to amend the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) have been received, and these are being analysed.
"In a very short time, we will come up with new drafts of the CrPC and the IPC before Parliament," he said.
The home minister said that importance should be given to three 'Cs' – cooperation, coordination and collaboration -- to achieve the goals of cooperative federalism, "whole of government" and "team India" approach, resource optimisation and integration.
