Centre helping States on internal security: Patil

New Delhi, Feb 25 (UNI) The Centre was helping the State Governments affected by Left wing extremism both on the internal security and the development and social empowerment fronts, said President Pratibha Devisingh Patil today.

In an address to a joint sitting of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha that marked the opening of the Budget Session of Parliament, she said modernisation of police and security forces and that of intelligence gathering systems was being given top priority by the Centre.

The overall internal security situation remained under control and the government was fully alive to the threat of terrorism and Left wing extremism, the President said adding the entire nation stood as one in condemning inhuman acts of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Assam.

''The government has been resolute in trying to stamp out of Left wing extremism. The conference of Chief Ministers on Internal Security underscored the importance of the Centre and the states working together to fight the menance of extremism and terrorism,'' she added.

In fact, in the face of extreme acts of violence against innocent people, including those near religious places, the citizens of India stood as one in rejecting the politics of hatred. Their refusal to be provoked demonstrated once again the innate humanism of the people and their commitment to the unity and integrity of India to its constitutional values of pluralism and secularism, the President said.

''It is largely due to this that an environment of communal harmony and amity prevails across the nation. The government will remain ever vigilant against the machinations of any anti-social and anti-national groups seeking to disrupt law and order, communal harmony and the unity and integrity of our people,'' she added in an apparent reference to the attacks on North Indian migrants in Maharashtra by the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.

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