Three years on, no truck scanners installed at Attari check post

[cloud_9]

Three years on, no truck scanners installed at Attari check post​

Scanners that can detect narcotics and contraband in a truck are yet to be installed at the Attari Integrated Check Post (ICP) in Amritsar.
In April 2012, the then Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said full body truck scanners would be installed at the ICP. In March, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, while laying the stone of the Viewers’ Gallery for the Retreat in Amritsar also made a similar announcement.

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and the Customs Department also want the screening equipment to be upgraded. They say the scanners would remove the possibility of drugs being smuggled into the country.
Even though trade between the two countries also took place via the Amritsar-Attari-Lahore railway route, there were no scanners there, said sources.

Since November, last year, the Customs Department has made four seizures of about 14 kg of heroin and another of Indian currency notes with the face value of Rs 5 lakh from the trains entering India.

The customs authorities said since the inception of the ICP in April 2012, they had written numerous times to the Centre, seeking two full body truck scanners or “drive-through” ones for the import section, but to no avail. Last week, they wrote to the Land Ports Authority of India (LPAI) that provides infrastructure for the ICP. The Land Ports Authority of India Act, 2010, mandates the body to install the scanners.

Customs officials said without truck scanners at the ICP, they were handicapped. “Though we first rummage through the trucks, we can only check five to 20 per cent of the goods, as per the customs norms. We can check all the items only if we have specific information about goods being smuggled. Matters become worse during peak season, when nearly 200 trucks arrive at the ICP,” said the officials.

Pakistan had installed two truck scanners at the Land Freight Unit in Wagah, but the LPAI officials felt the equipment was useless, said sources in the NCB.




So,basically we got 5% to 20% clue about what's coming through land or rail entry points.Truly a Banana Republic !