BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah recently expressed his dissatisfaction about the poor functioning of the state’s intelligence wing, blaming its failure to gather prior information for the communal violence in the coastal region.
While Siddaramaiah had merely stressed the need for effective intelligence gathering, what The New Indian Express has discovered about the intelligence wing is shocking to say the least –90% of the sub-inspector posts are lying vacant and even meagre funds sanctioned by the government are not used.
After a closed-door meeting with senior police officials on Wednesday, the CM told the media that there was no effective intelligence gathering in the state.
Had it been there, the communally-linked murders in Dakshina Kannada would not have taken place, he said. Siddaramaiah wants an exclusive force for intelligence gathering, but it is learnt that most of the young personnel joining the police force avoid opting for the intelligence wing. The reason: It is not lucrative.
Even the Director General of Police in charge of intelligence has admitted that although the sanctioned strength of sub-inspectors in the wing is 200, a whopping 180 posts remain vacant across the state – there are only 20 SIs. “Sub-inspectors are the ones who work at the grass-root levels and gather intelligence, but 90 per cent of the PSI posts are lying vacant,” he said.
It is not only the lack of SIs, even the post of SP (Intelligence) in the highly sensitive Dakshina Kannada district has been vacant for the last two years and sources said the DySP of Shivamogga district has been given additional charge.
Officers said the intelligence chief, who is in direct contact with the Chief Minister on a daily basis, can easily get such posts filled up, and yet it is a slow process. The DGP (intelligence) told Express, “We have already recruited around 80 PSIs for the intelligence wing. They will be given the latest and advanced training.”
But not only is an acute manpower crunch is posing a debilitating problem, even a financial crunch has paralysed the wing. Officials are upset about a “meagre” amount -- called Secret Service Amount -- given to the officials for agent running and building up a network of dependable informants.
The state intelligence wing is plagued by shocking problems which are preventing it from playing an effective role. But not only is an acute manpower crunch posing a debilitating problem, even a financial crunch has paralysed the wing. State intelligence officials are extremely upset about a “meagre” amount -- called Secret Service Amount -- given to the officials for agent running and building up a network of dependable informants.
When The New Indian Express spoke to several officials in the intelligence wing on the condition of not disclosing their names, many expressed dissatisfaction over the Secret Services Amount (SS Amount) paid to them, and also about the poor logistics.
Secret Service Amount is given to officers for agent running, a term used in intelligence parlance for maintaining network of informants without documenting the spending.
An officer said the government annually releases around Rs. 6 crore in instalments towards secret services expenditure. “Recently, the government had sanctioned Rs. 62 lakh. But the higher officers returned Rs. 40 lakh to the government and kept only `22 lakh for the SS amount.”
“There are instances when senior officers ask us at meetings: ‘When TV reporters can get information first, why can’t the intelligence officers?’ What can we say when confronted with such questions? We work out several methods to gather information. But money is what really matters. To meet some key informants, we have to spend several thousands of rupees at one shot as it involves several persons to be satisfied. When this is the situation, how can we manage with a few thousands of rupees given as SS amount? Agent running is not an easy task. In a majority of the cases, we can’t reveal that we are policemen. In some others, we have to identify a suitable private person and make him work for us to get adequate and accurate information. Will he work for free?,” an official said, adding that there is no encouragement to the staff and even reward money is not given.
Another officer said, “The government expects us to be in the field and gather intelligence. But how should we commute? There are no adequate number of vehicles. Even if there is a vehicle, there is no driver. Some top officials have more than five drivers. Why can’t they distribute the available resources judiciously? There are a few new vehicles but they are biting the dust. When M N Reddi was heading the wing, he had promised new vehicles for us including bikes, but nothing was done.” Asked if the SS amount not adequate, the DGP questioned: “Whom should I pay when there is no adequate staff?”
Outdated Stuff
In an age where most information/communication exchange happens on WhatsApp, the intelligence officials are reportedly not even provided smartphones. “Forget giving mobile handsets, we don’t even have a good internet data package. We are bearing such costs on our own. Also, the state of computers and printers in the office is pathetic,” an official said.
INTELLIGENCE?? NOT INTERESTED!
The intelligence wing plays a key role in any state as it keeps tabs on many issues, be it political developments, communal issues or possible terror threats. But the reality is that a majority of the police officers and men do not want to work there. The reason behind this is they miss a lot of ‘privileges’ they enjoy being in an executive posting. Hence, one who comes in, is eager to get out as early as possible, which results in a lack of quality in intelligence inputs. To tackle this issue, the state government has started to recruit sub-inspectors exclusively for intelligence wing.