Chidambaram for National Counter Terrorism Centre

Advocating bold and radical changes in the countrys security architecture Home Minister P Chidambaram Wednesday said the setting up of the proposed National Counter Terrorism Centre NCTC will result in the transfer of responsibilities of existing intelligence agencies to the new organisationOnce NCTC is set up it must have the broad mandate to deal with all kinds of terrorist violence directed against the country and the people I am told the US was able to do it within 36 months of 911 India cannot afford to wait for 36 months Chidambaram said while delivering the 22nd Intelligence Bureau Centenary Endowment lecture at the Vigyan Bhavan here India must decide now to go forward and succeed in setting it up by the end of 2010 he added Spelling out Indias new antiterror plan the home minister said agencies such as the newly set up National Investigation Agency NIA the National Technical Research Organisation NTRO the Joint Intelligence Committee JIC National Crime Record Bureau NCRB and National Security Guard NSG would be brought under the NCTC The positioning of the Research and Analysis Wing RAW Aviation Research Centre and the Central Bureau of Investigation CBI would have to reexamined and a way would have to be found to place them under the oversight of the NCTC to the extent they deal with terrorism he said Never before has the Indian state faced such a formidable challenge Never before have the Indian people been asked to prepare themselves for such fundamental changes in the manner in which the country will be secured and protected In Chidambarams reckoning intelligence agencies under the the ministries of defence and finance would continue to remain with the respective ministry but their representatives would have to deputed mandatorily to the NCTC The National Intelligence Grid Natgrid and the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems CCTNS will also come under the NCTC The two ambitious projects when implemented would mark a quantum jump in police forces ability to counter terror challenges What will strike any observer is that there is no single authority to which these organisations report and there is no single or unified command which can issue directions to these agencies and bodies said Chidambaram Some of the other ambitious projects the home minister wants to get off the ground are the Business Process Reengineering of the foreigners division at a cost of Rs200 million and the Mission Mode Project on Immigration Visa and Foreigners Registration and Tracking with the objective of creating a secure and integrated service delivery framework for facilitating legitimate travellers and strengthening security The scheme will network 169 missions 77 Immigration Check Posts ICPs five Foreigners Regional Registration Offices FRROs and over 600 Foreigners Registration Offices FROs with the Central Foreigners Bureau It is estimated to cost Rs1011 crore but the rub is it is slated to be implemented over a period of four and a half years he said The gaps in the visa system have been exposed in a number of cases the most notable among them being the case of David Coleman Headley The compelling need to create a foolproof system cannot be overstated The home minister said the government would put in place a mission director and complete the task within two years Core policing also had to improve and Chidambaram said the first step in devising a new security system in the country was to recruit more policemen and policewomen In my estimate states would have to recruit over 400000 constables this year and in the next two years in order to fill the vacancies and in order to provide for expansion of the police forces