100 districts to share real-time intel

India will soon be connected across 100 districts for real-time intelligence sharing and terror coordination, a move that signals the completion of intelligence reforms as envisaged by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1999.

Following Kargil intrusion, the then NDA government was charged with “intelligence failure” and had set up a Kargil Review Committee followed by a GoM report which had recommended the setting up of a multi-agency centre (MAC), or the counter-terrorism centre (CTC), as it was then known.

Taking the project to its final completion, the MAC, which functions under the Intelligence Bureau, is now set to roll out at the district level finally connecting far and wide districts that can share key intelligence inputs with the central MAC to avert possible terror attacks.

Notably, the move also signals the final burial of the previous UPA government’s dream project, the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), which had raised serious federal concerns from several states across the country, particularly the BJP-ruled states.

“The chief ministers of all states have shared the list of districts they felt needed to be part of the MAC. The process has begun and will be completed soon,” a top government official said. The move also comes in the backdrop of arrest of underworld fugitive Chhota Rajan and the government trying to bolster its counter-terror abilities.

As the NCTC proposal goes out of the ambit of North Block, top government sources said the NCTC proposal was flawed and did not require such a set up when the existing MAC had been performing its functions well. Instead, the MAC has been strengthened under the present regime which is overseeing the setting up of subsidiary MAC at the district level.

The intelligence agencies are confident that once the district MACs are connected, the intelligence sharing within the country will be bolstered.