Union Home Minister Amit Shah Addresses Border Security Conference
Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah addressed the Land Border Districts' Superintendents of Police Conference-2026 in New Delhi on July 9, 2026, outlining the government's comprehensive border security strategy. The conference was attended by Union Ministers of State for Home Affairs Shri Nityanand Rai and Shri Bandi Sanjay Kumar, Union Home Secretary, Director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Directors General of Police of border states, and several senior officials.
Shah announced that the Modi government is fencing the 1,610-km-long India-Myanmar border at a cost of ₹31,000 crore as part of a broader effort to transform India's border security into the "most modern in the world" based on the vision of a Smart Border. The government has increased border infrastructure investment by 400 percent and is taking it forward with a scientific approach.
The core security strategy involves building a "strong quadrangular security grid" that integrates border guarding forces, state and district administration, relevant stakeholders of Government of India, and local citizens. This represents a shift from reactive to proactive border management and from an isolated border outpost system toward an integrated security grid.
Key objectives outlined include preventing proxy war, illegal infiltration, radicalization, narcotics trafficking, smuggling, drone-related threats, cybercrime, organized crime, and demographic changes. Shah specifically committed to "inflict serious damage on the narcotics menace and achieve victory over it" within the next three years, and to create a "robust system to make the country completely infiltration-free."
The government is addressing demographic changes in border areas through the Demography Mission, which studies demographic changes, identifies abnormal factors contributing to demographic growth, and recommends preventive measures. Shah identified illegal infiltration as the primary cause of demographic changes in border areas and emphasized the importance of communicating information about abnormal demographic changes from grassroots to highest levels promptly.
Under the Vibrant Villages Programme, Prime Minister Modi has redefined border villages by terming the "country's last village as its first village." This initiative focuses on preventing migration, creating jobs, and ensuring 100% implementation of government welfare schemes in border regions to make these areas more livable and secure.
Shah highlighted previous security successes, noting that under Prime Minister Modi's leadership, the country has been "freed from Naxalism and terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir and the North-East," representing collective success. He contrasted the current approach with previous administrations, stating that while "earlier, problems used to be permanent and solutions temporary," the Modi government is "striking at the roots of the problems and making the solutions permanent."