Cheema’s major push to Yudh Nashe De Virudh: second line of defence at border

Cheema said the bulk of the drugs that reaches Punjab, comes from across the border.

“It is the primary responsibility of the Union Government to halt cross-border smuggling of drugs and arms, as the 50 km area along the border falls under the jurisdiction of the BSF. Yet, nobody can deny that the issue is still prevalent. We have now decided to complement the efforts of BSF by undertaking two initiatives to completely block cross-border smuggling of drugs. For the first time in state’s history, the government of Punjab will establish a second line of defence at the border by deploying 5,000 home guards alongside the BSF,” he said.

The government will also deploy the most advanced and effective anti-drone systems available anywhere in the world that can track and neutralize the sophisticated cross-border drones being used to drop drugs and arms inside Punjab. “We have already started piloting cutting-edge technologies and will deploy anti-drone systems along the border in the coming year,” he said.

Boost for sports

As part of the Yudh Nashe De Virudh campaign, the budget also seeks to engage youth in sports through ‘Khed-da Punjab, Badalda Punjab,’ initiave.

“I am announcing a historic allocation of Rs 979 crore to the sports department, which is the highest ever. This amount exceeds what the Akali-BJP and Congress governments collectively spent on sports over 10 years from 2012 to 2022,” Cheema said, adding sports will be promoted at the grassroots level, with playgrounds and indoor gyms provided in every village across Punjab.

Cheema said, “Special care will be taken to build quality playgrounds that have proper running track, separate children’s play area and solar lighting. These playgrounds will act as vibrant places in our villages, bringing people of different generations together and closer. They will help us build a close-knit, healthy and happy society, which is also the vision behind ‘Badalda Punjab’. We will also provide the necessary facilities for a locally popular sport in every village playground such as volleyball, football, hockey, kabaddi, etc. For example, there is a huge demand for volleyball in Tarn Taran district. In the last 15 days itself, we have built 87 volleyball playgrounds in the villages of Tarn Taran on pilot basis. Our sports department has mapped locally popular games in every village and in the coming year, such village playgrounds will be created throughout Punjab. We will also setup 3,000 indoor gyms throughout Punjab so that our youth even in villages have the best infrastructure,” he added.

Police modernisation

Cheema said Rs 233 crore has been proposed in the budget for modernising and upgrading the  police infrastructure, including construction and renovation of police complexes, purchase of land for police lines, police stations, and housing for the police personnel.

“To ensure that our police are well-equipped to respond immediately to any tip-offs and nab the culprits in time, we will launch a major initiative to strengthen the fleet of Emergency Response Vehicles (ERVs) that respond to emergency calls made on ‘112’,” he said.

Currently, Punjab Police operates a fleet of 258 dedicated ERVs due to which the average response time to distress calls goes up to 30 minutes. “In the next year, we have decided to procure 758 four-wheelers and 916 two-wheelers and deploy them as ERVs, which will effectively increase our fleet size by 6 times. With this, we will reduce the average response time to emergency calls to 8 minutes, which will be the lowest in the country,” he said.

In addition, a state-of-the-art headquarters for the ‘Dial 112’ response team will come up in Mohali.

While announcing an allocation of Rs 11,560 crore for the Department of Home Affairs, Justice and Jails, he said AI-powered CCTV surveillance is being deployed in central jails to detect and prevent illicit activities, along with the expansion of V-Kavach jammers across 12 sensitive prisons.