Bureaucrats must share blame for terror mayhem
The Hindu
http://www.thehindu.com/holnus/001200812041102.htm
New Delhi (IANS): Every time terrorists have struck India, fingers have been pointed at the security establishment for failing in its primary task. But are bureaucrats not equally responsible?
Many experts believe that bureaucrats and politicians should be made accountable for the delays and lapses in the administrative system that cost the country hundreds of lives.
Joginder Singh, former chief of the India's elite investigating agency Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), said it was a travesty of Indian democracy that important issues were being handled by people who had no knowledge of them.
"Files are caught in red tapism. The bureaucrats are given power just to say no," Singh told IANS.
"The bureaucrats make decisions only after some terror attack. They sanctioned the posts of 17,000 policemen to Delhi Police only after the September serial blasts in the capital while the proposal had been pending with the home ministry for over a decade.
"Posts which had been lying vacant in the Intelligence Bureau (IB) for years were sanctioned only after the Delhi blasts. Similarly, a proposal to strengthen the sea ring only saw light after the Mumbai terror strikes," he said.
A senior Delhi Police official admitted that the proposal to increase the force's strength had been pending approval from the home and finance ministries for the past decade. But the clearance came after the Sep 13 blasts.
"We had asked for 17,000 policemen, but they gave only 7,000 and again made a promise for the remaining 10,000 in the near future. How do you expect intelligence gathering with just a handful of staff?" the official asked.
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