Central group for internal security

NEW DELHI: An empowered Group of Ministers will soon be set up at the Centre for dealing with internal security, specifically the Naxalite problem.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh put forth the idea while addressing a meeting with chief ministers in New Delhi on Tuesday. Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil told journalists after the meeting that the existing GoM would be expanded to include the Union Ministers for Planning, Defence and Finance.

Other issues agreed upon were the need to raise the police-to-population ratio and to strengthen intelligence at the local level. At present, there are only 12,000 police stations to take care of 8.5 lakh villages and towns in the country. Seeking the help of individuals, organisations, and the media in intelligence gathering was also discussed.

The Prime Minister, while addressing the chief ministers, spoke of the need to deal with the fear of victimisation among minorities.“Problems have become more complex since we met a few months back in April,” he said. “Intelligence agencies warn of a further intensification of violent activities, with the possibility of more fidayeen attacks, the use of suicide bombers, attacks on economic and religious targets, and targeting of vital installations, including nuclear establishments.”

“Reports also suggest that terrorist modules and ‘sleeper cells’ exist in some of our urban areas, all of which highlight the seriousness of the threat,” he said.

Unless the ‘beat constable’ is brought into the vortex of our counter-terrorist strategy, our capacity to pre-empt future attacks would be severely limited,” the PM said. The PM said spoke of the need to involve the public in the battle against terrorism.