E-Paper
2-day visit to border areas: Punjab guv asks people to keep vigil on drone intrusions
Punjab governor Banwarilal Purohit on Wednesday started his two-day tour in the border areas by visiting Dharamkot Randhawa village falling under the Dera Baba Nanak sub-division of Gurdaspur district
AMRITSAR : Punjab governor Banwarilal Purohit on Wednesday started his two-day tour in the border areas by visiting Dharamkot Randhawa village falling under the Dera Baba Nanak sub-division of Gurdaspur district.
The aim of the visit is to tackle the threat of drones being used by Pakistan for the smuggling of drugs, arms, ammunition and explosives. This is governor’s fourth visit to the border areas in the past one year.
During his visit in Dharamkot Randhawa village, the governor interacted with the prominent persons of the village and sarpanches and member panchayats of the nearby border villages.
The governor urged people to support the security agencies in tackling drone intrusions from across the border.
The governor has also asked people to provide information immediately to the police and Border Security Force (BSF) if they sight any drone intruding into the Indian territory.
The BSF and Punjab Police have already announced an award of ₹1 lakh to people on whose information contrabands dropped by drones are recovered.
The governor said Pakistan is fighting a proxy war with India by sending drugs through drones. He said he was informed by Gurdaspur deputy commissioner (DC) Himanshu Agarwal that the administration has made village defence committees in all border villages of the district. These 11-member defence committees work to support security agencies to tackle the threat of drones and aerial smuggling, he added.
The governor was accompanied by Punjab chief secretary Vijay Kumar Janjua, director general of police Gaurav Yadav and deputy inspector general (DIG border range) Narinder Bhargav.
The people of border villages urged the governor to start Retreat Ceremony at the Dera Baba Nanak border.
On Thursday, the governor will visit Amritsar district.
During his last visit in border areas in February, the governor had alleged that the drugs were being sold at grocery stores. The earlier two visits of the governor had sparked row when he claimed that drugs had entered schools and colleges of the state.
