NEW DELHI (XINHUA): In the wake of terror threats looming in the country, India Wednesday expressed the need of bifurcation of its Home Ministry to deal with internal security better and set up National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC) by the end of 2010.
“Subjects not directly related to internal security should be dealt with by a separate ministry or should be brought under a separate department in the Ministry of Home Af- fairs and dealt with by a minister, more or less independently, without referring every issue to the home minister. The home minister should devote the whole of his time and energy to matters relating to security,” Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram said in the national capital.
Stressing that terror attacks or even threats are mostly hurting civilians, the minister proposed the formation of National Counter Terrorism Center by the end of 2010, and suggested sweeping powers for it to be the nodal agency tackling terror in India.
“Such an organization does not exist today and it has to be created from scratch. I am told that the United States was able to do it within 36 months from September 11, 2001. India cannot afford to wait for 36 months. India must decide now to go forward and India must succeed in setting up the NCTC by the end of 2010,” Chidambaram said.
“Twelve to 13 terror attacks neutralized in 2009 which could have been like Mumbai or Delhi attacks. Sooner than you think, there might be another crisis like the hijack of IC-814 and we need to restructure the security apparatus to avert such tragedies, “ he added.
The minister also said India needed more foot soldiers to fight terrorism as the response during last November’s Mumbai terror attacks, which claimed the lives of over 170 people, was inadequate.
“We need to recruit 400,000 policemen. They all need to be well trained and equipped. It’s better to have no policeman rather than having a bad one,” he said.
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