Seeking a national consensus on the policy on national security, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Saturday advocated a "free and frank" debate on anti- terrorism ordinance, saying the Centre has taken care to remove the shortcomings in TADA that lapsed six years back without a successor law to combat terrorism. Inaugurating the day-long chief ministers` conference on internal security, Vajpayee also sought the establishment of a federal agency to deal with terrorism across the country.

The Prime Minister regretted "enormous delays" in trials due to huge pendency of cases and said the inefficiency in the criminal justice administration system led to criminals committing further crimes with impugnity.
Dwelling on India`s diplomatic campaign following the September 11 attacks in the US and the "inseparable linkage" between internal security concerns and external environment in the region and the world, he told the conference that "our foreign policy has always been a product of national consensus.

"You will agree that the time has come to similarly make even our policy on internal security a matter of national consensus," Vajpayee said.
Referring to Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO) which has been strongly resisted by Opposition parties, he said, "the circumstances that have compelled us to bring in this legal instrument are well known to you. We have held consultations with the state governments and the law commission before taking the step." Bureau Report