Chidambaram proposes an overhaul of India's internal security system
23 Dec 2009
Union home minister P Chidambaram has proposed the setting up of a National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) as part of a radical restructuring of the country's security architecture.
Delivering the 22nd Intelligence Bureau Centenary Endowment Lecture in New Delhi today, the minister said India must be able to set up the National Counter Terrorism Centre by the end of 2010.
The NCTC must have the broad mandate to deal with all kinds of terrorist violence, directed against the country and its people, he said.
"The duties of NCTC will include preventing a terrorist attack, containing a terrorist attack should one take place, and responding to a terrorist attack by inflicting pain upon the perpetrators. Such an organisation does not exist today. It has to be created from scratch. I am told that the United States was able to do it within 36 months of 11 September 2001. India cannot afford to wait for 36 months. India must decide now to go forward and India must succeed in setting up the NCTC by the end of 2010," Chidambaram said.
Once NCTC is set up, it must have the broad mandate to deal with all kinds of terrorist violence directed against the country and the people. All intelligence agencies would have to be represented in the NCTC.
Some agencies like NIA, NTRO, JIC, NCRB and the NSG would naturally have to be brought under NCTC. The positioning of R&AW, ARC and CBI would have to be re-examined and a way would have to be found to place them under the oversight of NCTC to the extent that they deal with terrorism.
