Duggal calls for improving police force in states

New Delhi, Nov 23 (UNI) The Centre today directed the states to improve police-population ratio and strengthen their special branches to effectively tackle the internal security situation.

Speaking at the three-day Conference of DGPs/IGPs here, Union Home Secretary V K Duggal asked the states to improve security and intelligence capabilities by filling vacancies of police personnel and augmenting their strength.

He said the overall internal security situation in the country was on way to improvement on all fronts. In Jammu and Kashmir, infiltration had come down 'in the last couple of months' and in the North East, ''incidents of violence had been contained.'' There was significant improvement in the case of Naxal-affected state like Chhattisgarh.

However, he cautioned "challenges remain which must be met resolutely." In this context, he pointed out that the states should make full use of technology in bringing about modernisation of the state police forces.

Mr Duggal sensitised the officials of the election-going states such as Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Manipur.

"Expectations from the security forces for next year's election would be very high." He asked the DGPs and IGPs to ensure that elections were held in free, fair, secure and incident-free manner.

UNI SH PA KN1948