Package to tone up internal security soon

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI, OCT. 11. Following the September 11 terrorist strikes against the United States and the Jaish-e-Mohammad strike on the Kashmir Assembly, the Home Ministry is putting together a new package to take care of the heightened internal security threat perception.

The internal security apparatus is to be revamped - intelligence gathering is to be strengthened and the process of collating and sifting information streamlined, more posts are to be created at the higher rungs of the bureaucracy in the Ministry to create a ``core group'' of senior officers, and the earlier proposal for raising a new reserve police force based in the states has been activated and given a push. Besides, there is the ongoing programme of modernising the police force which aims at equipping it with better weapons, improved mobility and quicker communications.

To fund this exercise, the Home Ministry has also forwarded a demand to the Finance Ministry to increase the budgetary allocation. While the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Mr. I.D. Swamy, confirmed this, he was reluctant to put a figure on the new demand, which is expected to be substantial.

The recent drama of a fake hijack alarm involving a flight from Mumbai to Delhi, the string of bomb hoax calls, and the renewed communal tension as a result of the ban on SIMI and some provocative statements which have come in support of Osama- bin- Laden has created a situation in which the government does not know what to expect next. But what it does want to do is to put into place a strengthened and more sensitized machinery.

A ``core group of senior officers'' is to be created in the Home Ministry. Apparently, the search is on to identify the officers. For this, additional posts will have to created and cleared by the Finance Ministry which is otherwise on a downsizing exercise and has put a freeze on new posts.

The Home Ministry has also reactivated the earlier proposal of creating a new Indian Reserve Force which will be based in the States but the expenses would be borne by the Centre. The recruitment exercise for the new force has already begun, particularly in Haryana, the home State of Mr. Swamy. He expected each State to raise a battalion at least, while the bigger States and those with insurgency problems may raise even two.

The idea is to make States almost self-sufficient in dealing with not only the routine law and order problems but also the extra burden of policing as a result of the new and increased threat perception. The Centre would also be able to draw on this force in addition if needed by a neighbouring State. This would reduce the dependency of the States on the CRPF which is overstretched.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Front Page
Previous : 'Pak. ready to face any aggression'
Next     : Naipaul wins Nobel prize