Chidambaram for National Counter Terrorism Centre

Advocating bold and radical changes in the country's 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 organisation.

"Once 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 9/11. 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 India's new anti-terror 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 re-examined 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 Chidambaram's 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 Re-engineering of the foreigners division at a cost of Rs.200 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 Rs.1011 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 fool-proof 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 400,000 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."