Intelligence Bureau’s district-level officers to attend counter-terror grid meetings

The Ministry of Home Affairs is learnt to have directed the Intelligence Bureau’s (IB) district-level officers to be part of meetings of the multi-agency centre (MAC), a common counter-terrorism grid, in order to get real-time intelligence updates.

Meetings of the MAC, which functions under the IB, are typically attended by state-level officers who share inputs on their respective areas. But a few months back, especially after the ethnic clashes in Manipur, the government decided to rope in district-level SP-rank officers for the meetings.A senior official of the intelligence establishment said this is part of the Centre’s strategy to improve the intelligence-sharing mechanism and get real-time updates. “Usually, officers of the district level of IB, especially in the big states, are not able to attend such meetings due to travelling distance. And their seniors, who attended the meeting shared only core information, not the nitty-gritty of any area related issues, which might later become national issues,” the official said.

This year, the budget of the National Intelligence Grid was increased from Rs 87.77 crore to Rs 200.52 crore. Among other key agencies, Rs 3,418 crore was allocated for the Intelligence Bureau in the budget, from Rs 3,168 crore of the last year.

“A few months ago, it was decided to rope in all the district-level officers in the meeting, so that they would get in direct contact with the officials of headquarters and also with any officers, who are executing any operation in their areas concerned,” the official said.

Another official said officers in states have been directed to conduct site surveys for the upgradation of a project in which they have been asked to install a particular software so that they would attend virtual meetings. “All the nodal officers across all the state-intelligence-bureaus have been asked to coordinate with their surveyor and ensure that the survey report for installation of the particular software in their systems,” the official said, citing the internal communication.

Last year, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had stressed on the need to further strengthen the process of information sharing and enhancing liaison between counter-terrorism and anti-drug agencies of the states. “We also have to make the country’s coastal security impenetrable and for this we should keep a close eye on even the smallest and most isolated port,” he had said at a high-level meeting of IB officers from across the country in Delhi.

Source » indianexpress.com