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The Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA) has multifarious responsibilities, the important among them being – internal security, border management, Centre-State relations, administration of Union Territories, management of Central Armed Police Forces, disaster management, etc
Though in terms of Entries 1 and 2 of List II – ‘State List’ – in the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India, ‘public order’ and ‘police’ are the responsibilities of States, Article 355 of the Constitution enjoins the Union to protect every State against external aggression and internal disturbance and to ensure that the Government of every State is carried on in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.
In pursuance of these obligations, the Ministry of Home Affairs continuously monitors the internal security situation, issues appropriate advisories, shares intelligence inputs, extends manpower and financial support, guidance and expertise to the State Governments for maintenance of security, peace and harmony without encroaching upon the constitutional rights of the States.
Under the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961, the Ministry of Home Affairs has the following constituent Departments and institutional arrangement related to internal security and law and order aspect:-
Department of Internal Security
Dealing with the Indian Police Service, Central
Armed Police Forces, internal security and law & order, insurgency, terrorism, Left Wing Extremism, activities of inimical foreign agencies, terrorist financing, rehabilitation, grant of visas and other immigration matters, security clearances, etc.
Department of States
Dealing with Centre-State relations, Inter-State relations, administration of Union Territories,
Freedom Fighters’ pension, Human Rights,
Prison Reforms, Police Reforms, etc.
Department of Border Management
Dealing with management of international borders,
including coastal borders, strengthening of border guarding and creation of related infrastructure, border areas development, etc.
Internal Security – I Division: deals with matters relating to internal security and law & order,including anti-national and subversive activities of various groups/extremist organisations, terrorist financing, policy and operational issues on terrorism, security clearances, monitoring of ISI activities, Home Secretary-level talks with Pakistan on counter terrorism, etc.
Internal Security – II Division: deals with matters relating to arms and explosives, extradition, narcotics & Narcotics Control Bureau, the National Security Act and security of VIPs/ vital installations.
Internal Security – III Division: deals with matters relating to the Protection of Human Rights Act and also matters relating to national integration, communal harmony and Ayodhya.
Left Wing Extremism (LWE) Division: The Division was created on October 19, 2006 in the Ministry to effectively tackle the LWE menace from both security and development angles. It monitors the LWE situation and countermeasures being taken by the affected States with the objective of improving ground-level policing and development response as per the location specific action plans formulated/to beformulated by the affected States. It also reviews proper implementation of various developmental schemes of Ministries / Departments concerned in the LWE affected areas as also optimum utilisation of funds released under such schemes
North East Division : The Division deals with the internal security and law & order situation in the North-Eastern States, including matters relating to insurgency and talks with various extremist groups operating in that region.
Internal security situation in the country can be analyzed broadly on the following backdrop :
(i) Terrorism in the hinterland of the country.
(ii) Cross-Border terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir.
(iii) Militancy in the North Eastern States.
(iv) Left Wing Extremism in certain areas.
During the year 2015, the internal security situation of the country, with special reference to terrorism, militancy and insurgency, showed significant improvement.
Left Wing Extremist (LWE) remains an area of concern for internal security of the country. While 106 districts in 10 States are affected by LWE in varying degrees, 35 districts in 7 States are the most affected districts.
LWE violence reached its peak in 2010. It started declining from 2011 and this trend continues in
the current year as well. Chhattisgarh remains the worst affected State followed by Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. No incident of LWE violence was reported from Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh in 2015.
CPI (Maoist) continues to be most potent among the various LWE outfits in the country and accounted for more than 80% of total LWE violent incidents and resultant deaths.
Internal threats to national security have assumed center-stage in the debates on Indian security. They are arguably more serious than the external threats. They have a pan-Indian presence and are no longer confined to India’s north and north-eastern frontiers. Therefore, tackling these threats is a common concern for the Centre and the States. However, one witnesses that whether it is in the handling of the Mumbai attacks, or in the case of disturbances in Jammu and Kashmir, or the blockade of Manipur by the NSCN (IM) or the lack of coordination between the central paramilitary forces and the state police in naxal areas, the federal nature of the Indian polity has brought forth tensions between the Centre and the concerned States.
Constitutional Arrangement- In the deliberations on the constitutional responsibilities for dealing with challenges to internal security, it was emphasized that the following from the clear mandate of Article 355, the ultimate responsibility does lie with the Union Government. Several judgments of the Supreme Court interpreting the relevant constitutional provisions attest to this. However, since the responsibility for maintaining law and order rests with the State governments, there are at least two compelling reasons for involvement of and cooperation with the Union Government.
Firstly, several states witnessing internal disturbances are at the nation’s frontiers, and there is a discernible external dimension to the internal security issues.
Secondly, there is also a pernicious nexus between domestic miscreants and the international criminal networks.
The problem thus requires a combined response in the spirit of collective responsibility. As suggested by the Punchi Commission on Centre-State Relations, some constitutional amendments such as limiting the application of emergency powers to only the affected parts of a State may prove useful in minimizing Centre-State tensions. According to the Administrative Reforms Commission;
(i) The Articles in Part XVIII "Emergency Provisions" of the Constitution arm the Union with powers to ensure the unity and integrity of the country. These are meant to be used in a spirit of mutual trust. In particular, Article 355, which comes under this part, should be interpreted not as enabling the Union Government to assume direct control over law and order in a State but as imposing a duty on it to make available the assistance of its armed forces in aid of the civil power in the State.
(ii) As a matter of general policy, armed forces of the Union should be deployed in a State with the consent of the State Government concerned. It is only when national security or integrity is threatened and the State Government adopts an intransigent attitude, that the Union Government should deploy its armed forces suo motu. This power should be used sparingly.
(iii) State Governments cannot afford to build their police forces to a strength that would meet all contingencies. They have necessarily to draw upon the assistance of Union armed forces when the situation so demands.
A few State Governments do not agree with the Administrative Reforms Commission for reasons which are summarised below:
(i) Article 355 does not confer any powers or responsibilities on the Union other than those implied in Articles 352 and 356. As neither of these Articles provides sanction for suo motu deployment of armed forces of the Union in a State, Article 355 cannot be deemed to confer this power on the Union.
(ii) The word "aid" in the expression "in aid of the civil power" in Entry 2A of List I connotes that the armed forces of the Union can be deployed in a State only at the request or with the concurrence of the State Government. 'Aid' cannot be forced on its recipient.
(iii) The proposition that the Union Government can deploy suo motu its armed forces in a State goes against the scheme of the Constitution. As 'public order' and 'police ' fall entirely in the State sphere, the responsibility of a State Government in regard to these two subjects should be fully respected.
According to two State Governments, the constitutional responsibility of a State and its limited autonomy in regard to 'public order' and 'police' have been eroded by the Union through the creation and expansion of its police forces. One of them feels that the insertion of Entry 2A in List I and the simultaneous amendments of Entries 1 and 2 of List II in 1976 have also led to encroachment by the Union on the Jurisdiction of the States in regard to these matters.
In its report on Centre-State Relationships, the Administrative Reforms Commission observed that the Central Reserve Police and Border Security Force are armed forces raised by the Union to meet the security needs of the country, both external and internal. The use of armed forces in aid of the civil power of a State is a Union function under Entry 2 of List I and hence perfectly constitutional. Such aid could be provided at the request of the State Government or suo motu. The question whether such aid was needed was a matter of judgement by the Union. This was consistent with Article 355.
The Commission went on to recommend as follows:
(i) The use of the naval, military or air force or any other armed forces of the Union in aid of civil power can be made either at the instance of the State Government or suo motu by the Centre.
(ii) The Centre may exercise its discretion to locate such forces in the States and to deploy them for maintaining public order for purposes of the Centre, such as protection of Central property, Central Staff, and works in which the Centre has an interest.
Institutional Set-Up- Like the general consensus that the constitutional provisions to deal with internal security challenges were by and large adequate, there was complete agreement also on the fact that the institutions required to implement these provisions had not evolved sufficiently. Lack of political will on the part of the Union as well as States and dynamics of coalition politics prevent the development of appropriate institutional mechanisms. These result in the sub-optimal functioning of the various institutions involved in tackling the challenges. In order to overcome this institutional deficit, several constructive suggestions were made for strengthening the institutional mechanisms such as creation of new institutions such as a National Counterterrorism Centre and reform of existing ones such as the Indian Police Service, among others.
Operational Efficiency- Operational challenges arise mainly from the deployment of forces of the Union in aid of State civil authorities. There are only three instances in the history of independent India of a suo-motu deployment of such forces. In all other instances, the Union forces have been deployed on the request of the States’ concerned. Nevertheless, serious problems happen when a force that is not aware of local customs is deployed to counter insurgency and other kinds of law and order problems. While the need for such forces cannot be denied, it was argued that trained local officers must be involved, especially in conducting interrogations. Moreover, success in such operations will follow from having a blueprint for joint operations and an effective mechanism for coordination between the civil, judicial, police and paramilitary authorities.
Identifying the main challenges to national security faced by the country today as the proxy-war in Jammu and Kashmir, left-wing extremism, insurgencies in the North-East, terrorism by new groups like the Indian Mujahideen, Islamic State and counter-radical organizations, it was urged that political parties at the Centre and in States rise above their political differences to cooperate with each other in tackling these serious challenges. The perils of playing politics with national security were underscored by all participants.
There are seven police forces under Home ministry of the Union government:
These forces are assisted by intelligence agencies like:
The Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) is India's external intelligence agency. It was formed in September 1968 after the poor performance of the Intelligence Bureau (which handled both internal and external intelligence) in the Sino-Indian war of 1962 and the India-Pakistani war of 1965convinced the then government of India that a specialized, independent agency was required for competent external intelligence gathering.
The primary function of the R&AW is collection of external intelligence, counter-terrorism and covert operations.
Molding international public opinion with the help of the strong and vibrant Indian Diaspora.
IB is India's internal intelligence agency and reputedly the world's oldest intelligence agency. It was recast as the Central Intelligence Bureau in 1947 under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
In 1909, the Indian Political Intelligence Office was established in England in response to the development of Indian anarchist activities, which came to be called the Indian Political Intelligence (IPI) from 1921. This was a state-run surveillance and monitoring agency. The IPI was run jointly by the India Office and the Government of India and reported jointly to the Secretary of the Public and Judicial Department of the India Office, and the Director of Intelligence Bureau (DIB) in India, and maintained close contact with Scotland Yard and MI5.
Shrouded in secrecy, the IB is used to garner intelligence from within India and also execute counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism tasks. The Intelligence Bureau comprises employees from law enforcement agencies, mostly from the Indian Police Service and the military.
All spheres of human activity within India and in the neighborhood are allocated to the charter of duties of the Intelligence Bureau. The IB was also tasked with other external intelligence responsibilities as of 1951 till 1968, when the Research and Analysis Wing was formed.
The Central Industrial Security Force is a Central Armed Police Force in India.
It was set up under an Act of the Parliament of India on March 10, 1969 with strength of 2,800. CISF was subsequently made an armed force of the Union of India by another Act of Parliament passed on June 15, 1983.
It is directly under the federal Ministry of Home Affairs and its headquarters are at New Delhi.
The CISF provides security cover to 300 industrial units and other establishments located all over India. Industrial sectors like atomic power plants, space installations, defence production units, mints, oil fields and refineries, major ports, heavy engineering, steel plants, barrages, fertilizer units, airports and hydroelectric/thermal power plants, and currency note presses producing Indian currency are protected by CISF.
CISF also provides consultancy services to private industries as well as other organizations within the Indian government. The consulting wing has amongst its clients some of the renowned business houses and organisations of India including TISCO Jamshedpur; SEBI Hqrs. Mumbai; Vidhana Soudha, Bangalore; Orissa Mining Co., Bhubaneswar; AP Assembly, Hyderabad; Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corp.; HIL Kerala; IARI, Delhi; NBRI, Lucknow and Electronics City, Bangalore. The scope of CISF's consulting practice includes security consulting and fire protection consulting.
CRPF is the largest of India's Central Armed Police Forces.
It functions under the aegis of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) of the Government of India.
The CRPF's primary role lies in assisting the State/Union Territories in police operations to maintain law and order and contain insurgency.
It came into existence as the Crown Representative's Police on 27 July 1939. After Indian Independence, it became the Central Reserve Police Force on enactment of the CRPF Act on 28 December 1949.
CRPF is the largest paramilitary organisation of the country and is actively looking after the internal security of every part of India and are even operating abroad as part of United Nations peacekeeping missions.
It is performing a variety of duties ranging from VIP security to election duties, from guarding of vital installations to the counter-naxal operations.
The National Security Guard (NSG) is a Special Response Unit in India that has primarily been utilized for counter-terrorism activities and was created by the Cabinet Secretariat under the National Security Guard Act of the Indian Parliament in 1986. It works completely within the Central Armed Police Forces structure.
The NSG members are also known as Black Cats because of the black drill cotton coveralls and balaclavas or helmets they wear.
The NSG's roles include protecting VIPs, conducting anti-sabotage checks, rescuing hostages, neutralizing terrorist threats to vital installations, engaging terrorists and responding to hijacking and piracy.
The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) is an Indian force conceived on October 24, 1962 for security along the India's border with the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, border covering 2115 kilometers. It is one of the Central Armed Police Forces.
The Border Security Force (BSF) is a border patrol agency of the Government of India.
Established on December 1, 1965, it is one of the Central Armed Police Forces.
Like most paramilitary units of India, the BSF is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs. It is one of the many law enforcement agencies of India.
With strength of 240,000 personnel in 186 battalions, including women battalions, it is one of the world's largest border patrol forces.
Its primary role is to guard India's international borders during peacetime and also prevent transnational crime.
National Investigation Agency (NIA) is a federal agency approved by the Indian Government to combat terror in India.
The agency is empowered to deal with terror related crimes across states without special permission from the states.
NIA was created after the Nov 2008 Mumbai terror attacks as need for a central agency to combat terrorism was realised.
The National Investigative Agency Bill and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill was cleared by Parliament in December 2008.
For speedy and fair trial, the Supreme Court may transfer any case pending with the special court to another special court in the same state or any other state, and the High Court may transfer such cases to any other special court within the state.
Multi Agency Centre (MAC) was formed acting as the nodal agency on all terror-related Intelligence and become operational on a 24x7 basis from 1st January’ 2009.
India has burst some 59 small and big terror modules during the past three years. MAC provided real-time inputs during the 2010 Commonwealth Games and the 2011 Cricket World Cup.
At present, nearly two-dozen Central agencies coordinate with MAC. Central agencies as diverse as the IB, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the Military Intelligence, the National Technical Research Organisation, the Narcotics Control Bureau and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, among others, provide inputs. It derives its real strength from the 500-odd stakeholders - agencies of various states -- that are spread across the country.
CIGIII is not at all a concept, for the formation of another Intelligence agency. It is a proposed computerized and automated system dedicated to collect Intelligence Information directly from the alert citizen, Categorize, Integrate and sharing them with different security agencies. Depending on the category of the collected Information, the CIGIII follows different automated action taking path.
Every automated system should be under the monitor and control of any agency. So after the commendable step taken by Government of India, forming MAC (Multi Agency Centre), it become the perfect agency under whose robust control and monitor, CIGIII can perform most effectively. Also the motto of MAC, to coordinate and share Intelligence between different agencies will get fulfilled by CIGIII.
Civil Defence in our country perhaps the least focused area where citizens are directly involved to extends their helping hand for twelve different types of services, among which warden service is one of them. Civil Defence has a network of Wardens (mostly well-known figures in the society) who are authenticated by Government of India and responsible to keep information about the inhabitants of his or her locality.
If the Government of India will focus little more on strengthening this wing of Civil Defence then an extremely large network for Intelligence gathering will be formed with little effort.
It has been proposed that CIGIII will perform it’s verification of Information, by utilizing this civilian wing of Civil Defence. In real sense the CIGIII as a computerized system will work directly with Citizen for Intelligence gathering, with Civil Defence for the verification and with MAC for sharing and taking action on those verified Intelligence report.
The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), was passed on September 11, 1958, by the Parliament of India.
It conferred special powers upon armed forces in what the act calls "disturbed areas “in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. It was later extended to Jammu and Kashmir as The Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990 in July 1990.
According to the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), in an area that is proclaimed as "disturbed", an officer of the armed forces has powers to:
It gives Army officer’s legal immunity for their actions. There can be no prosecution, suit or any other legal proceeding against anyone acting under that law.
For declaring an area as a 'disturbed area' there must be a grave situation of law and order on the basis of which Governor/Administrator can form opinion that an area is in such a disturbed or dangerous condition that use of Armed Forces in aid of civil power is necessary .
The Act has been employed in the Indian administrated state of Jammu and Kashmir since 1990. It was withdrawn by the Manipur government in some of the constituencies in August 2004 in spite of the Central government not favouring withdrawal of the act.
The Police force in the country is entrusted with the responsibility of maintenance of public order and prevention and detection of crimes. Each state and union territory of India has its own separate police force. Article 246 of the Constitution of India(External website that opens in a new window) designates the police as a state subject, which means that the state governments frame the rules and regulations that govern each police force. These rules and regulations are contained in the police manuals of each state force.
Police' and 'Public Order' are State subjects under the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India and therefore, it is the primary duty of the State Governments to prevent, detect, register and investigate crime and prosecute the criminals. Central Government, however, supplements the efforts of the State Governments by providing them financial assistance for modernization of their Police Forces in terms of weaponry, communication, equipment, mobility, training and other infrastructure under the Scheme of Modernization of State Police Forces. Further, intelligence inputs are regularly shared by the Central Security and Intelligence Agencies with the State Law Enforcement Agencies to prevent crime and law and order related incidents.
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), a nodal agency under the Ministry of Home Affairs, is engaged in the process of collecting, compiling and analysing the crime statistics with a view to help the States to evolve appropriate strategies for better prevention and control of crime. Further, the Bureau has established computerized systems at every District Crime Records Bureau (DCRB) and State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB), across the country, under a project viz., 'Crime Criminal Information system (CCIS)'. This system maintains a National - level Database of Crimes, Criminals and Property connected / involved in crime with the objective of helping the law enforcement agencies in prevention and detection of crime and improving service delivery mechanisms. In order to effectively deal with the menace of organized crime, another system, viz., Organized Crime Information System (OCIS) is being put in place under the guidance of NCRB.
The Police force in the state is headed by the Director General of Police/Inspector General of Police. Each State is divided into convenient territorial divisions called ranges and each police range is under the administrative control of a Deputy Inspector General of Police. A number of districts constitute the range. District police is further sub-divided into police divisions, circles and police-stations.
Besides the civil police, states also maintain their own armed police and have separate intelligence branches, crime branches, etc. Police set-up in big cities like Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Pune, Bhubaneswar-Cuttack etc. is directly under a Commissioner of Police who enjoys magisterial powers. All senior police posts in various states are manned by the Indian Police Services (IPS) cadres, recruitment to which is made on all-India basis.
The Central Government maintains Central Police forces, Intelligence Bureau (IB), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)(External website that opens in a new window), institutions for training of police officers and forensic science institutions to assist the state in gathering intelligence, in maintaining law and order, in investigating special crime cases and in providing training to the senior police officers of the state governments.
The NATGRID has been conceived as a framework for collection of data available in various relevant databases of organizations in the country. It is a cutting edge technology tool that will strengthen the country’s counter-terror infrastructure. The Government has approved the DPR for the operationalization of NATGRID.
A total amount of `1,002.97 crore is proposed for the implementation of the key elements of the NATGRID project. The project period has been extended upto 30.06.2017. Further, an amount of `346.05 crore has been sanctioned for theconstruction of NATGRID facilities including Data Center (DC) and Business Continuity Planning (BCP) at Andheria More, New Delhi. Also, a Data Disaster Recovery Center at Bengaluru has been sanctioned. Both the Data Centres are under construction.
Combating Financing of Terrorism Cell(CFT Cell) in the Ministry of Home Affairs deals with the policy matters on Combating Terrorist Financing (CFT) and Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN). Under Section 51 A of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, the Central Government has powers to freeze, seize or attach funds and other financial assets or economic resources held by, on behalf of or at the direction of any person engaged in or suspected to be engaged in terrorism. Since 2009, on the basis of reliable inputs, the competent authority in the Ministry of Home Affairs has frozen a total number of 53 accounts suspected to be Terrorist Financing accounts.
A FICN Co-ordination Group (FCORD) has been formed in the Ministry of Home Affairs to share the intelligence/information amongst the different security agencies of States/Centre to counter the menace of circulation of Fake Indian Currency Notes within the Country.
Further a Terror Financing and Fake Currency Cell (TFFC) is functioning under National Investigation Agency (NIA). In one of the FICN cases investigated by the NIA, the Special Court established under the NIA Act, 2008 hasobserved that a neighboring sovereign country is involved in the circulation of FICN in India with the sole purpose and intention to damage and threaten the unity, integrity, economic security and sovereignty of India and also to strike terrorin the people.
During the visit of Hon’ble Prime Minister of India to Bangladesh, a MoU to prevent and counter smuggling and circulation of fake currency notes was signed on 06.06.2015 between India and Bangladesh. Under the mandate of the said MoU, a meeting of Joint Task Force on fake currency notes of both the countries was held from 12.08.2015 to 13.08.2015 at Dhaka (Bangladesh). The objective of the meeting was to operationalise the spirit of MoU for effectively curbing the fake currency notes menace. In order to operationalise, a draft SOP prepared by NIA has been approved by the Ministry for sharing with the Bangladesh authorities.
India is a Member of Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-Governmental Body, which makes recommendations relating to Combating of Financing of Terrorism, Money Laundering, etc. India is also member of the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (EAG) and Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG), which are FATF styled regional bodies and the Ministry of Home Affairs participates in their deliberations to highlight India’s position with regard to the issues relating to the Combating Financing of Terrorism.
Central Bureau Of Investigation - The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is India's premier investigative agency, responsible for a wide variety of criminal and national security matters. It was established on 1 April 1963 and evolved from the Special Police Establishment founded in 1941. The Central Bureau of Investigation is controlled by the Department of Personnel and Training in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension of the Union Government usually headed by a Union Minister who reports directly to the Prime Minister. It is India’s official Interpol unit. The CBI draws its officers from the best IPS and IRS officers around the country. It is responsible for investigation into various crimes and national security. The agency specializes in investigating crimes involving high ranking government officials and politicians.
Functional autonomy of CBI
With the ‘caged parrot’ comment of the Supreme Court, the stage is now set for wide-ranging reforms of the CBI, to provide it ‘autonomy’ in investigation. A large proportion of cases under the purview of CBI involves directly the interests of government and its functionaries. The caveat in the Vineet Narain pronouncement by the SC in 1997 specifically directed the state not to intervene in any manner in the course of investigation—a reiteration of the dictum that the ‘suspect’ should not be allowed to dictate the direction of investigation; flagrant violation of this principle has now prompted the apex court to insist on functional autonomy of the CBI.
The ‘control’ by government over CBI basically is on four different platforms—finance, personnel, investigation, access to expertise.
full autonomy in investigation needs to be given to the agency—no functionary, however powerful, would have the right to interfere in the details of any investigation. There are many government agencies which perform autonomously while financed by government—like CAG, CVC, EC.
CBI’s budget can be under the purview of the CVC Special Committee. This oversight committee could also deal with operational issues of the CBI requiring additional expertise of different sorts on an ad-hoc basis, from time to time.
The selection for the director and top three levels of the organisation ought to be in the domain of the CVC supervisory committee, referred to above. A judicious mix consisting of a permanent CBI cadre, along with deputationists from the police cadres, as well as expertise from outside, can be designed to ensure optimal results.
Our Constitution-makers did not account for the level of venality of our political class—did not provide the necessary checks and balances—bringing in a Lokpal would meet this gap. Till this materialises, the way forward is to enact a CBI law and handover the supervisory powers to an ad-hoc committee, chosen with care to ensure independence, quality and experience.
The Indian Income-tax Department - Is India's premier financial agency, responsible for a wide variety of fiscal matters. The Tax department is controlled by the Department of Revenue in the Ministry of Finance of the Union Government headed by a Union Minister who reports directly to the Prime Minister. It's officers are drawn from the Indian Revenue Services across the country. The Directorate General of Income Tax Investigation is responsible for investigation into various economic crimes and tax evasion. The special agents and agents are able to carry firearms when they are posted in the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) in the Income Tax department .The Finance Ministry has recently notified bringing under one umbrella the intelligence and criminal investigation units of the Income Tax department to effectively deal with terror financing cases and transactions that pose threat to national security.
The department now recruits special agents and agents (criminal investigation) under the new wing, half of whom would be recruited or brought on deputation from premier investigative agencies and police organisations of the country. The special agents who will form part of the premier DCI would be able to carry firearms under the rules prescribed by their parent organisation and would be able to tackle any intimidation in course of their new duty of checking and gathering intelligence on tax evasion.
The DCI will be headed by the Director General of Intelligence (Income Tax) and was notified to tackle the menace of black money with cross-border ramifications. The revamp is aimed at launching 'un-intrusive' investigations against "persons and transactions suspected to be involved in criminal activities having cross-border, inter-state or international ramifications, that pose a threat to national security and are punishable under the direct tax laws."
The commissioners of the intelligence directorate of I-T who are posted in cities like Delhi, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Lucknow will also take up criminal investigation work under the DCI."Criminal investigation relies heavily on accurate and specific actionable intelligence and information of such activities and hence such an arrangement has been made. Separate manpower for the criminal investigation unit will be raised in the next few years when the department gets additional sanction. The intelligence wing of the I-T department has the Central Information Branch (CIB) under it, which is a repository of classified and exhaustive data on taxpayers' financial transactions
Directorate of Revenue Intelligence: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) is an intelligence-based organisation responsible for the co-ordination of India's anti-smuggling efforts. Officers in this organisation are drawn from Indian Revenue Service (I.R.S.)
National Investigation Agency: National Investigation Agency (NIA) is the central agency to combat terror in India. The agency is empowered to deal with terror related crimes across states without special permission from the states. The National Investigation Agency Bill 2008 to create the agency was moved in Parliament by Union Home Minister on 16 December 2008.The NIA was created in response to the Nov 2008 Mumbai terror attacks as need for a central agency to combat terrorism was found. It also deals with drug trafficking and currency counterfeiting. It draws it's officers from IRS and IPS.
Various Special Courts have been notified by the Central Government of India for trial of the cases registered at various police stations of NIA under Section 11 and 22 of the NIA Act 2008. Any question as to the jurisdiction of these courts is decided by the Central Government. These are presided over by a judge appointed by the Central Government on the recommendation of the Chief Justice of the High Court with jurisdiction in that region.
Supreme Court of India has also been empowered to transfer the cases from one special court to any other special court within or outside the state if the same is in the interest of justice in light of the prevailing circumstances in any particular state. The NIA Special Courts are empowered with all powers of the court of sessions under Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 for trial of any offense.
Trial by this courts are held on day-to-day basis on all working days and have precedence over the trial of any other case against the accused in any other court (not being a Special Court) and have to be concluded in preference to the trial of such other case.
An appeal from any judgement, sentence or order, not being an interlocutory order, of a Special Court lies to the High Court both on facts and on law. Such an appeal can be heard by a division bench of two Judges of the High Court. At present there are 38 Special NIA Courts.
State Governments have also been empowered to appoint one or more such special courts in their states.
Narcotics Control Bureau - The NCB is responsible for anti-narcotic operations all over the country. It checks the spread of contraband as well as the cultivation of drugs. The officers in this organisation are drawn from both the IRS and the IPS.
Central Forensic Science Laboratory: The Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) is a wing of the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs, which fulfils the forensic requirements in the country. It houses the only DNA repository in South and Southeast Asia.
There are four central forensic laboratories in India, at Hyderabad, Kolkata,Mumbai,Rajkot, Chandigarh,Pune and New Delhi. CFSL Hyderabad is centre of excellence in chemical sciences, CFSL Kolkata in biological sciences and CFSL Chandigarh in physical sciences. These laboratories are under the control of the Directorate of Forensic Science (DFS) of the Ministry of Home Affairs. The laboratory in New Delhi is under the control of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and investigates cases on its behalf.
In some highly sensitive areas like J&K, Northeast, Indo-Tibet Border, the pace of security operations are very high. So that the turnaround time between collection, collation and dissemination has to be very small. The problem arises as IB officers serve largely in advisory capacity and helpless without the proper coordination of the regular enforcement arms.
As from some recent terror strikes it has been observed that many Professors, University Scholars, MBA graduates, Software Engineers etc. were involved, so this educated, professional and highly skilled society also to be, under the eagle eye of Intelligence network. But Indian Intelligence network have faced severe criticism for failing to penetrate this section of the society like, colleges, software companies etc.
The security agencies are themselves out of the focus of intelligence network where as it is observed that the in-house corruption is more dangerous than those who come across the line of control. In recent days many officers from various security agencies, armed forces, Indian Navy were facing allegation of disclosure of confidential national security information across the line of control.
Some postings go unfilled and in some cases the IB gets very thinly stretched on the ground. This leads to gaps in intelligence collection. The intelligence network operating in most rural areas where the major terrorist plans are being contemplated and executed in metros is not tech savvy
The Central Intelligence Bureau (IB) is reputed to be the oldest intelligence agency in the world constituted in 1933 by the British. After the formation of Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) in 1968, IB deals with internal intelligence gathering and RAW gathers external intelligence. But terrorism starts from the involvement of external entity and executed internally in the country. So only by good coordination and cooperation between the agencies and information sharing between them, these heinous terror strikes on innocent citizen can be aborted.
Intelligence is a key to make the police effective, particularly in preventing or dealing with Naxalism and terrorism, insurgency, communal riots, mass migrations and other internal security threats.
One cannot deny the fact that India is not among laggards since it has established strong measures to tackle counter-terrorism and counter- intelligence, and one such instance is the Multi Agency Centre. MAC shares the intelligence with other agencies, including those of the State Governments and Union Territories on a continuous and real time basis. Reciprocally, the other agencies are also obliged to share intelligence with the Multi Agency Centre.
However, India’s track record on internal security and counter-terrorism makes it obvious that the Intelligence establishment in the country at various levels requires revamping. The intelligence agencies are yet to develop new tradecraft and techniques for the penetration of non-state actors through human and technical moles, for the collection of intelligence, greater expertise in collation, analysis, and better coordination between intelligence and law enforcement agencies. This effort is underway now and should produce better results in the future.
The internal security problems should not be treated as merely law and order problems. They have to be dealt with comprehensively in all their dimensions and at all levels — political, economic and social. They are all interlinked.
At times, the required measures will conflict with each other. Going too far in one direction could be counter-productive. The security requirements have to be met, but that does not mean giving the security agencies a free hand.
Striking the right balance is the key to success in meeting these challenges effectively. We need a comprehensive security policy that will be implemented effectively at all levels.
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