Under fire over failing to act on alerts ahead of the Mumbai attacks, the Centre is working on putting in place a mechanism to effectively monitor sharing and action on intelligence. Officers of the Home Ministry, Ministry of Law and Justice and Intelligence agencies are working on the framework of the system, sources said. The Government is reportedly being assisted by senior functionaries of the US Directorate of National Intelligence in this, including its head Mike McConnell, who is visiting India next week.The Government is planning a nodal agency at the national level to monitor collection, sharing and action on intelligence inputs, including those collected by state intelligence agencies. Home Minister P Chidambaram is personally involved in the process. He emphasised the need to revamp the intelligence set-up at a meeting with senior officers on Monday, particularly sharing of information between agencies like RAW and the IB.Top Government sources suggested that the cue for such a law could have been taken from the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, 2004, which the US Government drafted post-9/11, leading to the setting up of the Directorate of National Intelligence. The US has not seen another terrorist attack since 9 Director of National Intelligence ensures that all intelligence is shared between senior government functionaries, including the US President, and is swiftly acted upon. He is also the principal authority ensuring maximum access to all intelligence agencies to intelligence information as well as distribution of funds.“Yes, the Home Minister has already asked us to work on this. Once a plan is finalised, it would be taken to the Cabinet,” said an officer involved in the process.Following the Mumbai attacks, NSA M K Narayanan had constituted special groups to come up with “action plans” for coordination on a “war footing” and to identify individuals for affixing accountability and responsibility in the future. Officials said the inputs received from some of the special groups will be considered before anything is finalised.It remains to be decided if the new agency would have any statutory powers. For this to happen, the Government would have to amend the Constitution.
