The three-day national conference on ‘Mapping India’s National Security Challenges-Today and Tomorrow,’ organised by the Andhra Pradesh police and the Centre for Human Security Services, was inaugurated here on Monday in the presence of police officers, retired bureaucrats and experts from various parts of the country.
Inaugurating the conference, Director-General of Police N. Sambasiva Rao underlined the need for mapping underdevelopment in the nation to eradicate issues like left wing extremism.
“In the case of extremism, underdevelopment and the spread of left-wing extremism which has strong correlation must be done. The government of India itself realised that development of the underdeveloped regions as one of the measures to control extremism,” he said.
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“If there is no cause, no one can influence public and get their voice heard. Like [the] bauxite issue in rural areas of Visakhapatnam, there are other problems in other areas. Not just one but many layers of information can be mapped on a single platform so that a clear picture of problems and their causes emerge.”
“We all know how hard we fought against the typical left wing extremism. Subsequent to former top cop K.S. Vyas’s gutsy policing against the extremists, AP police rose to the occasion. After the recent exchange of fire at AOB, we could somehow manage to put the LWE threat outside the boundaries of AP,” he added saying there were many other threats like cybercrime.
Speaking about the tremendous changes in the police department, Mr. Rao said PhD scholars and M.Tech graduates were applying for constable posts in the State. “Just a team of eight constables are able to manage a control room in Tirupati and one out of every four cases we detect there are through CCTV footage. Such is the change in way of policing. One should not feel shy to learn new things,” he added.
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Former chief security adviser, United Nations, K.C. Reddy said the successful approach of AP police towards LWEs had not been replicated in other affected States.
He said Chinese insurgency in the north-east was a major threat. Chintamani Mahapatra, American Studies Professor, JNU, gave a presentation on ‘Stress in global order: Opportunities and challenges in Indo-US relations’. He said the security of the coast of AP must not be isolated as a matter of State but should be seen in a global perspective.
Srikanth Kondapalli, Chinese Studies Professor, JNU, gave a presentation on ‘International Security on the South China Sea’. He suggested that the Indian government concentrate on the South China Sea as 45 per cent of the country’s international trade was dependent on the route.
Additional Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad T. Murali Krishna in his presentation on ‘New Terrorism’, said no State was equipped to deal with weapons of mass destruction.
Association Economist Rashmi Singh from PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, AP CID chief D. Tirumala Rao, Commissioner of Police, Vijayawada, D. Gautam Sawang, former DG of Sashastra Seema Bal M.V. Krishna Rao, former Union Home Secretary and honorary director of CHSS K. Padmanabaiah and CHSS Founder and Executive Director K. Ramesh Babu were present.
In the afternoon session, J&K cadre CSO B Srinivas, Air Vice-Marshal Kapil Kak, retired IPS officer R. N. Ravi and former DGP, J&K, Ashok Prasad, spoke on terrorism while B. Umapathi, former IGP-CID, British Chevening scholar (UK) C. Benarjee and Commissioner of Police, Kolkatta, Rajeev Kumar, spoke on human trafficking in the third session.