The parliamentary standing committee of home has criticised the government for not providing adequate infrastructure to the National Investigation Agency. During its meeting on Thursday, the committee pointed that NIA official have to hire taxis for official work and are facing severe manpower crunch. Committee members were also critical about the “limited” funds being provided to the agency. The committee primarily met to discuss the demands for grants of the home ministry in which home secretary R.K. Singh and other senior officials of various central police agencies were also present. One of the members said, “You create an agency but fail to provide infrastructure, including manpower, vehicles and buildings. An anti-terror agency is being manned by a few hundred personnel.” The Committee will hold a meeting in the coming to discuss the role of NIA in detail. Officials from the home ministry and NIA were also asked about the progress made in the February 21 Hyderabad blasts and the panel was informed that important leads have been gathered and a breakthrough was likely. Some members, including Lalu Prasad (RJD), raised the issue of detention of Muslim youths from Bihar for their alleged role in terror activities. Some members suggested setting up fast track court for such cases. The issue of NIA arresting people from various states without informing the state authorities was also discussed.
