Home secretary identifies priorities for PM Narendra Modi

Smart policing to counter terrorism, how to tackle and defeat Maoists and Northeast insurgent groups will be the key pointers of a presentation that Union home secretary Anil Goswami will make to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Taking a cue from Union home minister Rajnath Singh's observations of the review of the ministry's key divisions, Goswami went through the presentations again to fine tune the important areas that need immediate attention to improve the country's security.

PM Modi is expected to see each ministry's presentation in the coming days to set priority areas and personally intervene in key projects. Instead of ministers, the presentations are expected to be shown to the PM by the each ministry's secretary.

Officials said the ministry has picked policing as a major area that needs immediate attention not only to preempt and defeat designs of terrorists, but also to improve general law and order. The ministry plans to rejuvenate policing and bring it on par with the police of developed nations that manage affairs with minimum intervention and non-obtrusive methods, sources said.

The other big areas that the ministry thinks need massive intervention are Maoist and northeast insurgencies. The plan that the ministry wants to put before the PM includes increased security forces — 23,000 more paramilitary personnel in Bastar, 24 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), Herons from Israel to be precise, one full squadron of fortified M-17 helicopters and modern weaponry for the troops to handle jungle warfare in both Bastar region and the northeast.