In her address to governors and lieutenant governors, President Pratibha Patil while calling to fight terrorism jointly, said that those booked under National Security Act should not be freed under bail.
"A legal provision can be incorporated in a separate chapter in the NSA Act, 1980," she said at a meet on terrorism in Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Patil said with the changing times there is a need to modernise the police force and greater work needs to be done on cyber and technical intelligence.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called a special meeting of the Union Cabinet on Wednesday evening to discuss a comprehensive report filed by the Veerapa Moily Committee on Administrative Reforms, details of which were given to the media by Moily at a press conference in New Delhi on Tuesday morning.
The meeting according to sources has been convened at the instance of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and alliance partners of the Congress party in the United Progressive Alliance who are visibly upset with Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil for not taking concerete steps to prevent terrorists from striking at will and instead, giving attention to his clothes.
Sonia Gandhi was so upset with him that while discussing internal secrurity, Patil was told to stay away from the meet.
Though Patil claimed that he had the blessings of his leader, none of the Congressmen have come out in his support.
Barring two provisions the new laws is more or less a repeat of the Prevention of Terrorism Act implemented by the National Democratic Alliance government.
Discussions at the special Cabinet meet is expected to generate lot of head on the proposed law and how to implement it and whether Patil should be asked to go.
According to sources, several Congress leaders are pitching in to replace Patil should the Congress leadership decide to do so and one of them is Digvijay Singh, former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh. "This is mere speculation," said a senior Congressman.
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