Centre is going to call a meeting of cheif ministers in a fortnight to deliberate on the security situation in the country.
NEW DELHI: In view of the terror attacks in Uttar Pradesh, Assam and elsewhere, the Centre is going to call a meeting of cheif ministers in a fortnight to deliberate on the security situation in the country, Union home minister Shivraj Patil said in the Lok Sabha.
The discussion saw the Samajwadi Party asking the Centre to initiate action against the Mayawati government if it has failed to tackle the terrorist menace, but Patil, asking members to refrain from blame game, said the security and intelligence set up was weak and inadequate and needed to be strengthened.
In an apparent retort to the UP Chief Minister who had held the Centre responsible for failure to avert the blasts, the home minister said cooperation between the Centre and the state could only help address the challenge.
Congress MP Jiten Prasada, obliquely pointed to the weakness of Centre’s intelligence bureau, saying that it needed to be strengthened.
Patil said that the IB cannot keep a tab on each village and lane which was the job of special branches and CIDs of the
state police. These branches needed to be strengthened in all possible ways while the expenditure on policing should be increased substantially both by the Centre and the states, Patil said.
Noting that there were only 14,000 police stations across the country compared with 6.5 lakh cities, towns and villages, he said the number of police stations as well as the numerical strength of the police personnel also needed to be enhanced significantly.
Initiating the debate, Leader of the Opposition LK Advani recalled the serial blasts in Varanasi, Faizabad and Lucknow and said “a pattern” had emerged in the terror strikes over the past two years in which instances of coordinated serial blasts were on the rise.
BSP’s Rajesh Verma dismissed allegations against the state government and said there was need for the entire House to be united in facing the challenge. At the same time, he suggested that it was Centre’s job to deal with terrorist activities as these elements were being encouraged from across the border.
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