Odisha Intelligence wing struggles to deliver in absence of manpower
BHUBANESWAR: Be it the egg attack on Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s convoy at Puri; communal tension at Joda or even frequent self immolation bids in front of Assembly and CM’s residence, the instances of intelligence failures are dime a dozen in Odisha.
And the recent change of guard at the Directorate of Intelligence is unlikely to make the system robust overnight as the wing, one of the oldest in Odisha Police, is struggling to deliver as mandated due to lack of adequate manpower. Despite having huge responsibilities like collection and dissemination of intelligence on internal security, terrorism, communalism besides surveillance and supervision of affairs related to foreigners and national security, the Intelligence Wing in the State is one of the poorly-staffed units in the country.
The sanctioned staff strength here is less than half as compared to states like Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. Odisha has a sanctioned strength of 490, including only two SP ranked officials, seven Additional SPs, 37 DSPs, 124 Inspectors, 59 Sub-Inspectors, 190 ASIs and 71 constables. Sources said around 20 per cent (pc) posts are lying vacant and personnel from other wings are being deputed as part of temporary arrangements.
Andhra Pradesh has 1,256 staff, including 311 at headquarters and 945 on field under its intelligence wing and Tamil Nadu has 1,212 employees, including 467 at headquarters and 745 on field. In Odisha, only 77 are at the headquarters and the rest 413 have been deployed in the field.
Though the scope, mandate and responsibilities of the wing has widened over the years, there has not been any commensurate availability of manpower to fulfill their responsibilities. “Lack of manpower has been one of the biggest reasons affecting the performance. The existing manpower is not adequate to meet the present challenges and responsibilities faced by the organisation on various fronts,” said the sources.
The Immigration Visa Foreigner Registration and Tracking (IVFRT), a 24 x 7 online service under the national e-Governance plan to facilitate immigration related services to international travellers, is also affected as only one officer in inspector rank is managing IVFRT section. Officials are supposed to be deployed at the International Check Posts at the airport and sea ports.
Similarly, the Inter State Intelligence Support Team (ISIST) having the responsibility of developing intelligence from various sources and converting them to operational grade intelligence is manned by only one inspector and one SI rank officer instead of at least 20 staff headed by a DSP.
Hit by inadequate manpower, the Directorate has proposed to create two new cells - Governance and Development Intelligence Cell and Socio Political Intelligence Cell apart from re-organising and strengthening the Communal and Terrorism Cell, Counter Intelligence Cell and Administrative Cell.
A senior Home department official said the State government is aware about the staffing pattern and mulling a complete revamp with additional posts and more manpower. The State government had recently replaced Director, Intelligence Lalit Das and handed additional charge to RP Koche.