No community responsible for terrorist violence in Mumbai

New Delhi, July 31: Home Minister Shivraj Patil today said he would not hold any one community responsible for the recent incidents of terrorist violence in Mumbai and other parts of the country but would soon come up with a plan to give security cover for mega cities like Delhi and Mumbai while augmenting the police forces and intelligence gathering network.

For the national capital, he said a complete security plan to protect the metro was in place, Mr Patil said. This could be replicated in Kolkata too.

Mr Patil said 300 more battallions of central police forces wil be raised at a cost of Rs 4184 crore and allocate Rs 1025 crore to state government for one year to augment and modernise their police forces.

''We are also considering to take up the issue of giving an insurance cover to the personnel in police forces,'' Mr Patil said in his reply to discussions in the recent Mumbai terror attacks.

The Minister said while the population has increased, the number of police personnel remained more or less stagnant. ''There is only one policemen for every 900 citizens,'' he said.

He said Rs 300 crore has been allocated for renewing and constructing new jails.

For security related expenditure in Maharashtra, the government has given Rs 200 lakh and Rs 88.78 crore for police modernisation in the state. Five mine protection vehicles have been given to the state, he said.

For Backward District Initiatives, Rs 75 crore have been given.

''But money remains unutilised,'' he said.

He said there would be a multi-pronged approach to combat violence and would like to use force wherever necessary and possible. There would be no indiscriminate use of force, he clarified.

''We would like to bring about economic development,'' Mr Patil said.

He said the government has allocated Rs 24,000 crore for Jammu and Kashmir's economic development. For North East, Rs 20,000 crore package has been released and for the Naxalite affected areas, the sum is Rs 2475 crore for the economic development of these areas.

He said state governments have been asked to strengthen their law and order machinery and collect more intellegence. ''There should be information on time,'' he said.

Cooperation between states must be strengthened, he added.

Mr Patil said no one community should be victimised for violence.

''We will not hold the entire community responsible,'' he said.

''Let us stop and persuade them to give up violence,'' Mr Patil said.

He said there is a need to take special care of cities like Mumbai which are the country's economic hubs. These should be protected from land, sea and air attacks. He suggested using helicopters to survey from air.

''The system used to provide necessary security needs change. He said the railways and other organisations are preparing plans for such changes,'' the Home Minister said.

He said the country has a wide network of railways and the terrorists are targeting it. Even airports, bus stations, religious places and even schools need security cover. All this needs manpower and training.

Mr Patil suggested widespread use of cameras in strategic locations in the country.

The Home Minister said the advance information is not enough.

''The information is not accurate about the exact plan, time ... and that's the difficulty,'' he said.

He said the government of Maharashtra did inform of the attack but it was not possible to prevent the attack per se. ''I would not hold the government of Maharashtra responsible,'' he said.

UNI

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