After Opposition cry, govt mulls revisiting NIA Act

Addressing concerns expressed by some half-a-dozen Opposition ruled states, Home Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday said the National Investigating Agency (NIA) Act may be revisited.

"We will revisit the NIA Act, if needed," he told reporters at the end of a day-long conference of Chief Ministers on internal security.

Participating in the meeting, Chief Ministers of NDA-ruled states said that the new National Investigation Agency would "disturb" the federal set up of the country and resented that states were not consulted before the new anti-terror laws were framed.

Admitting that nearly half-a-dozen states expressed some "reservations" over the NIA, Chidambaram said he would write to all Chief Ministers detailing the contents of the NIA and tell them to write back to him if they require clarifications.

Home Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday said a "proactive" approach is needed to root out threats emanating from "potential" terrorists operating in the country in a clandestine manner.

"Our response to terrorism cannot be reactive. There is ample evidence that many terrorist modules have burrowed their way into the country. There are also many sleeper cells.

"We must adopt a proactive approach to apprehend these people and thwart any possible terrorist threat. In this regard, too, the key is gathering and sharing intelligence and responding in a coordinated manner to apprehend the potential terrorist," Chidambaram said while addressing the Conference of Chief Ministers on internal security in New Delhi.

He asked the Chief Ministers to put in place a clear command structure in the case of a terrorist threat or attack.

"There must be no ambiguity or confusion about who is in-charge, all aspects must be spelt out clearly and made known to the state police department as well as other forces that may be requisitioned in the case of a terrorist threat or a terrorist attack," he said.

The Home Minister asked the Chief Ministers to strengthen the intelligence gathering function at the ground level (police station) in their respective states.

"There must be at least one person of the rank of the head constable or an assistant sub-inspector who is exclusively charged with this (intelligence gathering) responsibility -- and is burdened with no other work," he said.

"Besides the Special Branch must be strengthened and adequate number of Special Branch personnel must be posted in districts and major towns," Chidambaram said.

He asked the Chief Ministers to draft a strategy for "seamless flow of intelligence in real time" from a police station to National Capital via District Headquarters and state capital and vice versa.

"Beginning January 1, 2009 the Multi Agency Centre has begun to function on a 247 basis and is now legally obliged to share intelligence with all other agencies, including agencies of the Governments of the states and Union Territories," he said.

"Under the Modernisation of Police Forces Scheme, there is a component to enhance the capacity of Special Branch of state police and I would request you to implement the agreed plans expeditiously," Chidambaram told the Chief Ministers.

He said objectives to raise the level of preparedness to meet increasingly sophisticated terrorist attacks and enhancing the speed and decisiveness of response mechanism should be achieved in a relatively short period of time.

Police personnel should be given special training and advanced equipment to deal with such threats, he said.

"The Central government proposes to set up hubs of the National Security Guard in different parts of the country. To begin with, hubs will be set-up in four cities."

"Some other cities will be covered by a trained anti-terrorist force provided by defence forces -- for example Bengaluru will be covered by the Army. In the course of time, NSG hubs will be set up in more centres," he said and asked the states to raise and deploy their own anti-terrorist forces and offered them all the help from the Centre.