Gopal Sharma
JAMMU, Feb 12: As the increasing number of cases of drugs and ammunition smuggling through cross LoC points in J&K have added to the worries of Union Government, a five member Central team was today deputed to Poonch cross LoC point by the Home Ministry (HM) to speed up the process of installation of full truck body scanners at Chakkan-da-Bagh.
Officials sources told the Excelsior that a five-member Central team including representatives from Union Home Ministry, Atomic Energy, DRDO and Finance Ministry arrived here from New Delhi on the instructions of the Union Home Minister to identify the suitable place at Chakkan-da-Bagh Trade Centre for the installations of full truck body scanner (machine) at the cross LoC point, for the proper scanning of all the trucks arriving from Pak occupied Kashmir with goods. They reached Poonch in a special helicopter and after spending nearly two hours at the site, they returned to Jammu and then to the Union capital this evening.
Sources said the team led by Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs Ms Sulekha, assisted by D Chakravarty – Dy Director (Technical) MHA, Kavita P Dixit and G K Panda- both Scientific Officers from Atomic Energy and Defence Research & Development Orgnisation (DRDO) and Anant Kumar from Ministry of Finance had detailed discussions with the District Officers concerned at Poonch and then proceeded to the Cross LoC Trade Centre at Chakkan-da-Bagh.
The team along with Deputy Commissioner Poonch, M H Malik, Additional SP Amit Gupta, Executive Engineer PWD (R&B) Poonch, Kabir Hussain Shah and Trade Facilitation Officer, Mohd Ashraf Choudhary (Custodian) reached LoC point and discussed the issues related to the installation of scanning machine at the safer zone as the harmful radiations are involved in the scanning process.
After discussing all the parameters of safety, for the staff of Trade & Immigration Centre and the truck operators, they issued instructions to the Dy Commissioner and the Executive Engineer R&B for the requirements and kind of structure to be raised for the facility. The members also took stock of the insufficient and poor facilities at Immigration and the Trade Centre at the LOC point and talked to the staff and some traders of the area. The team left for Jammu at around 2.15 pm in the same helicopter.
Dy Commissioner Poonch, Mr Malik when contacted said that five member Central team from Delhi led by a senior official from Union Home Ministry and some representatives from DRDO and Department of Atomic Energy arrived here to identify the suitable site for the installation of full truck body scanner and discuss other related issues and parameters for the public safety. He said since the radiations are involved during the operation of scanners, all the safety parameters are needed to be taken care of before the installation.
Mr Malik further said that the process has already been delayed but now it is understood to have been expedited by the Union Government in view of recent developments and trade stand- off after the recovery of drugs. He said since Union Home Ministry is spending funds on the project, he will not be able to give the exact cost of project. The visiting officials, however, have indicated that global tenders are being floated to procure scanner and this process may take a few months time. But it has been indicated that process would now be completed shortly, Mr Malik maintained.
It may be recalled that despite clearance by the Ministry of Defence, the proposal for the installation of full truck body scanners for the scanning of trucks loaded with goods coming from the Pak occupied Kashmir at Salamabad (Uri in Kashmir) and Chakkan-da-Bagh (Poonch) LoC points, the process of installation of much needed modern gadgets had been put into the cold storage by the Government. Not only this, due to the poor infrastructure available at the LoC point, the security, immigration and trade facilitation staff was also facing lot of problems.
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs had initiated the process of procuring the machines (large scanners) from the foreign firms including Germany and USA through global tenders. It was expected that both the scanners will be in place at the cross LoC points at Uri and Chakan-da-Bagh before October 2013, but no much development was witnessed in this regard thereafter.
The sources said that necessity to install full body scanners for trucks loaded with the goods was felt by the Indian security agencies after the Customs/ Excise and security staff at Chakkan-da-Bagh and Uri recovered some objectionable material, including live cartridges of guns, satellite phones, drugs on several occasions and now 9 kg brown sugar at Uri concealed in the packed boxes of goods coming from PoK side. This recovery led to the stand off between the two sides and 71 trucks remained stranded on both the sides.
The security men seized live rounds at least on three occasions at Poonch LoC point, SIM cards on number of occasions, a satellite phone once and now 114 kg brown sugar worth over Rs 100 crores at Salamabad (Uri) last year. It has also led to the suspension of trade on both the sides and put the drivers/ operators besides traders in trouble. Not only this, in view of standoff between the two countries over the issue of this recovery, the bus service was also affected.
Sources revealed that the proposal had been sent to the Union Home Ministry by the State Government during 2011-12. It was discussed at higher level to install two full body scanners one each at Salamabad in Uri and Chakkan-da-Bagh in Poonch. Reminders in this connection were also forwarded to the Union Government. It said if full truck body scanners are installed at both the LoC points, the problems of this kind (suspension of trade etc) can be avoided. The truck with any such material will be detected immediately after crossing gate. Fool-proof security can be ensured with the installation of such gadgets there.
It may be recalled that total 50 truck goods are entitled every day including 25 from the either side. The trade is allowed on four days per week, including Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. During one week 100 truck goods from Indian and the same number from Pakistan side are allowed.
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