Chidambaram promises rapid action

Promising ‘rapid action’ in the coming days, new Home Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday urged his officers to come up with a ‘result-oriented...

Promising ‘rapid action’ in the coming days, new Home Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday urged his officers to come up with a ‘result-oriented’ approach in the shortest possible time to strengthen India’s security.

In his first joint interaction with the senior officers of his ministry, Chidambaram, who was appointed the Home Minister in the wake of the resignation of Shivraj Patil, said there were very high expectations from the ministry from the general public and there was a need to come up with some quick steps to deal with terror-related issues, Home Ministry sources said.

He asked his officers to be prepared for rapid action over the next few days and told them to suggest some short- term result oriented measures in view of the urgency of the situation.

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In the coming days and weeks, the Home Ministry is expected to be occupied with some long-pending decisions aimed at enabling the Government to effectively fight terrorism. These include the need to have a stringent anti-terror law and a federal investigating agency, massive modernisation of the police forces and the intelligence set-up, and safeguarding coastal security.

Earlier in the evening, Chidambaram held a 30-minute meeting with visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.