Droupadi Murmu's Victory Is A Reply To Those Who Paid Only Lip Service To Tribal Empowerment: Amit Shah

Arriving in Gujarat where Assembly elections are due by year-end on a two-day visit, the senior BJP leader also inaugurated a host of projects. "It is a given that one of the two candidates in the fray will win the presidential election, but for Droupadi Murmu to become President -- going from Shrimati Droupadi Murmu to Mahamahim Droupadi Murmu -- is a historic event in the 75 years of the country's independence," Shah said at the National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU) here.?

"To all those who talk about tribal empowerment but divide communities and play politics, Murmu's victory is a reply that tribal empowerment cannot be achieved only by using words but it happens by actions like this," the Union minister said.?

APJ Abdul Kalam and Ram Nath Kovind too were elected to the top post when the Bharatiya Janata Party was in power, Shah noted. While Kalam contributed to India's security by strengthening the country's defence systems and putting India on the world map in the field of science, ?Kovind came from a very poor Dalit family and made it to the top post after a lot of struggle, he said.

"Today's (newly-elected) president comes from a region where many people do not even know what is president," Shah said.?
At NFSU, Shah inaugurated several projects for `smart policing', including an e-FIR system, Integrated Command and Control Centre called `Trinetra.' He also dedicated 10,000 body-worn cameras and 80 new vehicles for the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit.

`Trinetra' integrates the feed from 7,000 CCTV cameras from different district-level centres as well as 15 drone cameras and 10,000 body-worn cameras of police personnel. The e-FIR system allows the lodging of a First Information Report for a vehicle or mobile theft directly through a portal or mobile app without visiting a police station. Shah said the number of CCTV cameras under the Trinetra project should not be limited to 7,000 but a system should be created to incorporate the feed of cameras installed at railway stations, private residential societies, ports and pilgrimage sites.

"Only then will the `suraksha chakra' conceptualised by the Gujarat government will become 'sudarshan chakra' and ?provide safety to Gujarat," he said. Whenever any incident occurs, the command and control centre should have access to the spot (through CCTV feed), he said. "It is possible only when connectivity and storage (of data) are increased," he said.

When the state government launched `e-Cop' project during Narendra Modi's tenure as chief minister, Gujarat became the first state to have all police stations computerised, Shah said. As much as 96 per cent of police stations in the country have been computerised now with the CCTNS software and the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre has also been formed, he said.

Since the 1980s, a lot of changes have taken place in Gujarat on the law and order front in terms of police functioning, decision-making, recruitment, modernisation and police welfare schemes, Shah said. "No (other) state would have witnessed such a change in law and order situation in such a short period of time. If a 15-year-old (in Gujarat) is asked about curfew, he may fail to answer because he has never seen a curfew in his lifetime," he said. ?

There have been only a few incidents requiring curfew after 2002 in Gujarat which once saw 200 days of curfew in a year and where once banks remained closed for 212 days in a year in Ahmedabad, Shah said.?

After 22 years, nobody dares to indulge in communal riots in the state, infiltration through the coastal route has stopped, all channels for smuggling have been closed and situations necessitating curfew do not arise, Shah said. This became possible as after the BJP came to power in Gujarat in 1995 and especially after Modi became chief minister in 2001, emphasis was put on law and order and action was taken against anti-social elements with determination and firmness, he said.?

(With PTI Inputs)