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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said there is a need for re-orienting the police forces to effectively track inter-community tensions as they rise. Addressing the annual conference of state police chiefs here, Dr. Singh said there is a need to devise strategies to counter the propaganda that is carried out by new means of communication. "Any measure to control the use of such media must be carefully weighed against the need for the freedom to express and communicate," he said. Dr. Singh said the recent increase in communal tensions in the northeast is a cause of concern. "The increase in communal incidents in the country in the past few months, and the revival of ethnic tensions in the northeast in recent weeks, have been, particularly, causes of concern to all of us. The ethnic disturbances of the northeast assumed a national dimension with the flight of people belonging to the northeast from various towns of south and western India," said Dr. Singh. "This further strained the communal situation in the country, which was already showing some signs of deterioration, particularly in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala," he added. Dr. Singh described religious and cultural diversity as a source of strength and vitality for India. The Prime Minister said a new cyber security structure was being prepared by the Centre to prevent threats. Dr Singh said for the robust security structure partnerships among the government, academia and private sector was essential. Stating that the use of bulk SMSes and social media to aggravate the communal situation was a new challenge, Dr. Singh said: " There is a need to fully understand how these new media are used by miscreants." Dr. Singh further said that the ability of the Left wing extremists to gradually increase their numbers and enhance their military potential was a cause of worry. The Prime Minister honoured Olympic medal winners MC Mary Kom and Yogeshwar Dutt on the occasion.

PM expresses concern over increase in communal incidents