Even as terrorists continue to strike at will all over the country, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs is yet to implement the ‘Internal Security Centre’ project submitted by Indian Institute of Technology -Kanpur (IIT-K). The project, prepared by IIT-K around two years ago on the initiative of MHA, is based on the pattern of Homeland Security Department of the US following 9/11 attacks.

The project constitutes of large computer network throughout the country which would contain data of each and every individual like address, profession, financial records, foreign visits and others. Not only the information would be shared with security agencies but also alerts would be sent to them in case any unusual or suspicious activity was reported by the local network.

Head of Computer Science and Engineering department at IIT-K Phalguni Gupta said that the blue-print of the proposal for Internal Security Centre (ISC) was submitted to the MHA by institute director S G Dhande in June 2005. Gupta added that the proposal has been sent twice since then but the Government agencies have not responded yet.

The ISC will be designed to coordinate with all law enforcing agencies in the country to provide them an edge in countering terrorism.

Minister of State for Home Affairs Shri Prakash Jaiswal said that the IIT-K’s proposal has been sent to Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Intelligence Bureau (IB). “The agencies would review its working as per the international standards and submit their report” he said. Expressing hopes of a positive report, he said that the Home Ministry will soon hold a meeting of IIT-K and intelligence agencies officials to discuss the proposal and its implementation.