Delhi launches new spy agency

Agartala: The central government has decided to set up an intelligence gathering mechanism for the northeastern states, officials said here on Sunday.

"The senior most additional director of the Intelligence Bureau [IB] would be the head of the proposed CSF [Common Surveillance Facilities], whose independent officials would work in each of the eight northeastern states and gather intelligence about militants' activities in the region and across the border," said Tripura chief secretary Sashi Prakash.

"The CSF would institutionalise all intelligence inputs and general information and put them into action at the ground level, besides alerting the state governments," Prakash said.

The decision to found the CSF was taken at a crucial meeting in New Delhi last week.

Chief secretaries and directors general of the northeastern states, cabinet secretary K.M. Chandrashekar, top officials of Research and Analysis Wing, chiefs of various central paramilitary forces, director general of military operations and civil and intelligence officials attended the meet chaired by National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan.

Tighter security

"Security along the international borders with the northeast, especially with Bangladesh, would be further tightened to prevent cross-border movement of militants, besides shipping of arms and explosives," Prakash said.

He said the central government has agreed to provide more funds to all the northeastern states for modernisation of security forces, necessary training of state police personnel by the National Security Guards (NSG) and equipping the state forces to deal with the prevailing tensions.

Request

The meeting was called following a request of Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"I have also urged Manmohan Singh to convene a meeting of the northeast chief ministers to discuss strategies to deal with security threats in the region," Sarkar said.