Demography along borders changed deliberately: Amit Shah

DEmographic changes in edge areas straight wallop the certificate of the rural area and its borders and they could be part of a “deliberate design”, Union home minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday, as he urged district magistrates of border districts to take action to remove all illegal encroachments within nearly 30-kilometre radius from the Indian borders.Shah was speaking at the inauguration of the two-day vibrant village programme (VVP) workshop organised by the Border Management Division (BMD) of the ministry of home affairs (MHA) in the national Capital. The workshop is being attended by chiefs of security forces, chief secretaries of border states, DMs of border districts, and top officials of the ministry and intelligence bureau.In his address, Shah reiterated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day speech where he expressed concern over demographic changes. “The HM said collectors of districts included in the VVP need to address this issue with seriousness. Demographic changes in border areas directly impact the security of the country and its borders. It should not be assumed that this is happening due to geographical conditions, rather, it is occurring as part of a deliberate design,” a government spokesperson said.Shah also told the state chief secretaries and the central armed police forces to pay attention to this issue, the spokesperson added.VVP is a centrally sponsored scheme for border villages to ensure better living conditions, adequate livelihood opportunities, safe borders, control trans-border crime, assimilate the border population with the nation and inculcate them as eyes and ears of the border guarding forces.Shah said that VVP is based on three key points: preventing migration from border villages, ensuring that every resident of the border villages receives 100% benefits of central and state government schemes, and developing the villages under VVP into strong tools to strengthen border and national security.The home minister asserted that the villages identified early under the VVP in a few years will prove to be very significant tools in the security of the country and its borders and that the government has worked to promote infrastructure development, preserve and enhance culture and generate employment through tourism.Shah said that in VVP-1, efforts were limited to the programme itself, but in VVP -2, there is a need to change the administrative approach. “He urged collectors of border districts to take appropriate action to remove illegal religious encroachments, stating that these encroachments are part of a deliberate design. He stressed that all illegal encroachments within at least a 30-kilometre radius from the border should be removed,” the spokesperson said.The minister urged young DMs to work with border guarding forces in development of the border villages and to curb migration of people, and cited the example of border villages in Arunachal Pradesh. He said if initiatives like homestays are extended to border villages and state tourism departments make proper arrangements for bookings, every household in these border villages will have employment.“(The HM said that) the rural development departments of states must work towards establishing the pride of these villages, with district collectors playing a crucial role in this effort. He said that if villages have all facilities and employment opportunities, local residents will not wish to migrate…,” the spokesperson said.