sns & pti
NEW DELHI, 11 JUNE: The Union Home Minister, Mr Sushilkumar Shinde (file photo), today said that the Centre will provide the required paramilitary forces for security during panchayat polls in West Bengal.
“It (forces) will be given to them. I have spoken to the Chief Minister (Mamata Banerjee) and asked her that she should give a proposal to the chief secretary and the chief secretary will talk to the home secretary. I have already spoken to the home secretary asking him to give paramilitary forces (to West Bengal),” he added.
Meanwhile, facing stiff opposition to the NCTC from non-Congress chief ministers, Mr Shinde said both the Centre and the states need to work together for setting up the proposed counter-terrorism body and sought consensus from all stakeholders.
“When such opposition is there, we will think over it and then decide. We need to take consensus on it. I have said it many a time that both the Centre and the states need to work together. We cannot do it alone,” Mr Shinde told reporters here when asked about the government’s strategy on setting up the NCTC.
He said the government has already accepted the demands of some chief ministers opposed to the proposed body.
“First, their (chief ministers) objection that it should not be under Intelligence Bureau, we took it out. They also said its operationalisation should not be under IB, that also we did.
“I will only say that we tried to have a Central intelligence agency but they said Multi-Agency Centre is there. To which, they have accepted which is also a Central agency,” Mr Shinde said apparently suggesting that the opposing states should agree to the NCTC.
Mr Shinde today rejected Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi’s demand for a ‘white paper’ on internal security and said the government was following a two-pronged strategy of development and offensive action to tackle Maoists.