New Delhi, Aug 17 (IANS) Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan Monday urged the central government to reimburse expenses incurred by the state in tackling terrorism, saying that the state government “cannot alone mobilize resources to fight terrorism”.
“The state government alone cannot mobilize the resources to fight this menace of terrorism,” Chouhan said at the chief ministers’ conference on internal security which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh convened Monday in New Delhi.

“The central government should thus reimburse the expenditure incurred by the state government on special force, intelligence and investigation units, establishment of special units to effectively counter terrorism,” said Chouhan.

According to official sources, Chouhan said that there was need to increase the police force in districts and to equip them better and the central government should provide a special grant for the purpose for a period of five years.

Drawing the prime minister’s attention to the fact that Madhya Pradesh has forwarded proposals of Rs.120 crore to the home ministry under the police modernization scheme 2009-10, Chouhan said that the state government was ready to provide its share immediately.

“But the sum of Rs.112 crore provided to the state under the police modernization scheme during former home minister L.K. Advani’s tenure has now been reduced to Rs.50 crore,” he said.

Chouhan urged the central government to provide special training to officers and employees to fight terrorism seats should be reserved for officers and employees of Madhya Pradesh in National Security Guard (NSG) and other special national level training institutions.

He also stressed the need for a time bound programme for training of state police officials in these institutions.