Staff crunch plagues intel agencies

The country is alarmingly running short of “sharp eyes and ears”  that are to secure its internal security by “spotting the enemy”.

The  Central Intelligence Bureau (CIB) which is tasked to garner intelligence domestically and also to  execute counter-intelligence missions has a shortage of around 9500 hands . “It will take another two to three years to fill these vacancies,” a senior government official told Deccan Herald.

Making the situation worse, the police establishment is also running short of over one lakh personnel, excluding Indian Police Service (IPS) officers.

At a time when the country has to contend with multiple challenges in the area of security, including those along the Indo-Pak and Sino-India borders, the shortfall in the key agency may reduce effective “human intelligence”, sources said.

The CBI is understood to have around 25,000  personnel, with senior officers drawn from the IPS . The IB has often been misused for political purposes by the establishment of the day that dilutes its serious task it is entrusted with and puts additional pressure on its already meagre resources.

“IB is being used for political intelligence that is not in its charter. No DIB tells the government that it is not our job,” says Satish Chandra, former ambassador to Pakistan during the Kargil intrusions.

When asked how India goofed up  in sending “the most wanted” to Pakistan , including the names of those residing in India, Chandra, also  a former deputy national security advisor, said: “Earlier the IB used to vet every important information, but now it does not seem to be happening”.

Former DIB Arun Bhagat points to the ready and repeated access gained by  David Headley, an operative of the Pakistan-based terror group  Lashker-e-Taiba, to  India  checking-in airports and hotels at various places without being “detected by IB, immigration authorities or by  hotel management.”