CMs conference: Centre to push states for police modernisation - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

The Chief Ministers' conference on internal security will be held here on Sunday in the backdrop of the proactive policy being pursued by the Centre to upgrade security scenario in the country and modernise police forces. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will inaugurate the conference. The conference assumes importance as Union Home Ministry pursuing proactive policy to combat Naxalism, increased infiltration attempts from across Indo-Pak border and the success of anti-terror measures. The conference would inter-alia focus on the review of the action points that were identified in the last conference held in August 2009. The conference also cover the wide ranging areas of capacity building in the state police, strengthening of counter terrorism and intelligence capabilities, police reforms, combating economic offences, especially fake Indian currency notes, strengthening the border and coastal security. The new initiative like the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) are also likely to be discussed with chief ministers. Earlier on Thursday, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram raised concern over state governments not allocating enough funds for policing in their budgets, thus, putting a burden on the Centre to increase the strength of para-military forces. "The first duty of the Government is to provide security to its people without which no development is possible," Chidambaram had said. "The Centre has been forced to substantially increase the strength of its paramilitary forces, because the State forces could not be augmented and modernized to the desired level," he added. Home Ministry on Friday, expressed displeasure over a very low police population ratio in states like Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. The police modernisation in states like Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh is doing on expected lines, sources said.