The Hindu : New Delhi News : Focus on meeting challenges of internal security

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 20, 2007
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New Delhi

Focus on meeting challenges of internal security

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: In a bid to further firm up the national security apparatus by addressing concerns voiced by the States and underlined by the Centre from time to time, Chief Ministers are likely to be told by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil at the annual conference on internal security here on Thursday that a joint collaborative effort was necessary to meet the challenges of internal security. One of the concerns of the Centre has been dwindling police-population ratio and the laxity by several States to fill vacancies in their police forces. For instance, Bihar has about 19,000 vacancies and Uttar Pradesh comes next with about 15,000 vacancies.

“The States should take up the issue of filling up vacancies in a time-bound manner and should accord top priority to it,” Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta told reporters on Wednesday.

He said the meeting with the Chief Ministers was aimed at understanding their perceptions about some of the pressing problems on the internal security front being faced by them, including terrorism and those related to inter-State jurisdiction and international boundaries.

He said issues such as naxal activities, particularly in four States, need for special forces, development schemes and hinterland terrorism were also scheduled to be discussed. The Centre’s stress had been on finalising district-level plans and strengthening core policing in the naxal-affected areas.

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