No conflict between central agencies and state police forces: Chidambaram

New Delhi, Apr 16 (ANI): Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Monday said that there is no conflict between the Central Agencies and the State Police Forces.

Addressing the Chief Ministers' conference on internal security here, Chidambaram said: "This is the reality: at the operational level, there is no conflict between the Central Agencies and the State Police Forces. They work together, consult each other, share intelligence and, when necessary, mount joint operations to apprehend the suspects."

"In my view, such silent and invisible work of neutralising terrorist modules deserves as much praise as solving the terrorist cases," he added.

He further said that the year 2011 saw a marked improvement in internal security scenario, in Jammu and Kashmir, North East, LWE as well as terror related incidents.

"An overview would lead to the conclusion that violence had declined in 2011. Be it the North Eastern States, Jammu and Kashmir or LWE affected States, or the attempts to commit terrorist acts, there was indeed a decline in the number of incidents and the number of casualties. However, I must caution you that behind these figures lies a more worrying narrative - which is the spread and the reach of some adversaries, and their success in augmenting their weaponry and their military capabilities," he said.

"The target is the Indian State and, naturally, every constituent of the Indian State, and, in his offensive, the adversary does not recognise State borders. His organisation does not match States' territorial jurisdictions. And he makes no distinction between the Central Government and the State Governments," he added.

Asserting that the security forces had remained vigilant, Chidambaram said: "In 2011, 18 terror modules were neutralised and 53 persons arrested. In the first three months of 2012, 3 modules were neutralised and 11 persons arrested."

"I wish to underline the fact that one half of the cases were cracked through the joint efforts of the Central Agencies and State police concerned," he added

The Home Minister further said international border in the west and LoC continue to be vulnerable to infiltration.

Chidambaram urged the state governments to remain vigilant to prevent any communal situation.

He informed that the NIA would set up new offices at Mumbai, Kochi and Lucknow.

Saying there were only 100 civil police for a population of one lakh, Chidambaram said there are over five lakh vacancies in all ranks of the sanctioned strength in the country.

"There were only 100 civil police for a population of 100,000. The vacancies in all ranks were 501,069 or about 25 per cent of the sanctioned strength. States spent about Rs.50,000 crore on the police in 2010-11, but that was only 4.76 per cent of the total budgeted expenditure of all States," he said.

"Of this, only about Rs.700 crore was spent on training. The findings speak for themselves. The study is a wake-up call to all of us, and I would urge you to take the corrective steps that are so urgently needed in order to enhance our capacity to meet the challenges," he added. (ANI)