Under attack from some chief ministers for taking unilateral decisions on security-related matters,Home Minister P Chidambaram has told the state governments that the Centre would step back for every step forward by the states in ensuring the security of the country. In his concluding remarks at the internal security meeting of the chief ministers on Monday,Chidambaram said it was a matter of regret that the states continue to mistrust the central government. The central government is willing to step back,for every step that the state governments will take and accept the responsibility. If you will accept responsibility for border management,we can step back; if you will accept greater responsibility for fighting the Naxals in the Naxal-affected districts,we are willing to step back. So every responsibility that the state government will take,we are willing to step back but,in the meanwhile,until capacity is built,we have to work together, Chidambaram told the chief ministers. Some non-Congress chief ministers,notably J Jayalalithaa and Narendra Modi,had slammed the Centre for not treating the states with respect and taking unilateral decisions in matters that were directly in the domain of the state governments. Modi said this attitude of New Delhi was fuelling mistrust between the Centre and the states. Chidambaram responded by saying that the Centre and the states had to work together to achieve the results quickly. Talking to reporters,Chidambaram said there was no way the states alone could deal with security challenges like left-wing extremism or Naxalism. Similarly there was no way the Centre alone can fight without the help of the states. By and large,all states realise that we are in this together, he said. Meanwhile,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said consensus-building was the only way forward and vices like terrorism need to be tackled together by the Centre and the states. Naxal presence in Assam minimal but noticeable The Union Home Minister on Tuesday said the presence of Maoists in Assam was minimal as of now but was noticeable. He was elaborating on his statement that Assam had emerged as the new theatre of Maoist activity. It (Maoist presence) is not alarming at this point of time. But it is noticeable. Maoist groups have established some links with insurgent groups like NSCN. It is mainly for procuring weapons and money from Myanmar and China, he said.
