By IANS,
New Delhi : Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram Thursday chaired the first ever meeting of the Multi Agency Centre (MAC), which is to coordinate information sharing between state intelligence agencies, and asked all the agencies to ensure that terror related intelligence gathered by them reached MAC immediately.
The home minister put the onus of the success of MAC on the chiefs of various intelligence agencies.
The ministry had issued an executive order Wednesday, giving legal mandate to MAC to obtain terror related intelligence from various agencies and pass them on to those needing them in time.
Thurday’s meeting was attended among others by chiefs of the Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis Wing, Military Intelligence, besides Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta.
Formed on Dec 6, 2001, as a nodal centre on all intelligence related to terrorism, the MAC had been lying dormant till now for want of any legal order explicitly spelling out its functions, powers and duties.
Senior home ministry officials said that Chidambaram sought to impress upon the various agency chiefs to ensure that any terror related intelligence gathered by them reached MAC promptly, while MAC would ensure that the information reaches the appropriate quarters equally fast.
“The MAC, as the nodal centre on all intelligence relating to terrorism, has not been able to fully achieve its objectives. Hence, it was decided that a legal colour be given to the order establishing MAC,” Chidambaram had told reporters Wednesday during his maiden press conference.
Subsidiaries of MAC have already been established in many state capitals and in due course these would be set up in every state capital.
MAC became operational Wednesday on 24×7 basis. Various states have already established the subsidiary of MAC in their capitals while others are in the process of setting up the same in coordination with the central government.