Home Minister unhappy with Joginder’s regime

Expressing dissatisfaction over the functioning of the CBI and its director, Gupta said that although the agency is supposed to function in a most secretive fashion, the CBI director on the contrary appears on television almost every day.Gupta said investigative and intelligence agencies under the Union Government had gathered enough information to substantiate links between politicians and criminals. Unfortunately, this information is not made available to the Government. Nor was it being shared among the agencies themselves to help facilitate their investigations, he added.

He pointed out that the Vora committee report had specifically referred to non-cooperation among agencies and non-availability of information with the Government.

The Home Minister said that the Government was seriously considering steps to compel investigating and intelligence agencies to make available to the Government this information.

The Home Minister said that it would be almost impossible to control the growing alliance between criminals and politicians in the country under the existing legal set up.

Admitting that the political intelligence aspect of the Intelligence Bureau was weak’, the Gupta said that the IB was at present concentrating more on the law and order situation. He said that a political intelligence wing of the IB would be developed soon.

The Home Minister said that the Union Government is contemplating a cut in expenditure on security arrangements for VVIPs and VIPs coming to Delhi. He said that on an average a huge sum of Rs 58 crore was being spent monthly on this account.He said that about a dozen VIPs like Chief Ministers and Governors visit Delhi every day and over 1,000 police personnel are deputed for their security.In addition to incurring huge expenditure, this has led to a rising crime rate in the Capital.

Home Minister Indrajit Gupta has said that crime rate in mega-cities like Mumbai and Delhi was fast rising and that the situation was alarming.He said that this trend could be arrested by involving the public in the day-to-day functioning of police stations. He said that the Government is considering ways and means to associate citizens’ organisations with the functioning of the police.Another proposal being considered by the Government is the establishment of police complaints authorities’ to hear the grievances of the public against the police.

The authority, consisting of representatives of the people, women social workers, retired police officials and chaired by a person with a judicial background, will have an autonomous character.The first such authority would be tried out in Delhi soon and if found successful, the arrangement would be extended to other parts of the country.

Union Minister of State for Personnel S R Balasubramaniam has asserted that the CBI has been given a free hand in the investigation of various cases including the fodder scam and the Bofors gun deal.There was no governmental interference in the CBI’s working, he told newspersons in Chennai on Tuesday. The investigative agency comes under his ministry. Asked about media reports that Joginder Singh was being shifted out of the prime investigating agency because of his controversial handling of the Bofors and fodder scam cases, he refused to confirm or deny, but said most of the cases were being monitored either by the Supreme Court or the high courts and the government had given a free hand to the agency. He also denied reports that he and Finance Minister P Chidambaram were interfering in the CBI investigation of the Indian Bank scam or any other scam”.