NATGRID to get legal powers soon

NEW DELHI: The home ministry will soon issue an executive order to give a legal framework to the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) that will give 11 security agencies real-time access to 21 citizen databases to track terror activities.

The need for such a executive order has dawned upon the government as the various ministries and departments, called as the “provider agencies” that hold the 21 citizen databases like bank account details, telephone records, passport data and vehicle registration details, will need a “legal mandate” to link and share their databases in real-time through the NATGRID with the various intelligence and investigative agencies, termed as “user agencies”.

A senior government official said NATGRID was asked recently to prepare a draft of the said executive order and Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami held a meeting on the said issue with NATGRID CEO Raghu Raman Raman on Monday.

The Rs 2800-crore NATGRID project is not functional right now. “We are still a good 18 months away from the first linking of data through the NATGRID project and the government has started work well in advance on the legal framework for NATGRID,” a government official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

NATGRID was set up as an attached Office of the Ministry of Home Affairs with effect from December 1, 2010 and further the Cabinet Committee on Security approved last June Rs 1002.97 crores for implementation of Foundation, Horizon-I and some elements of Horizon-II of the NATGRID Project.

The government had earlier passed an executive order for the failed National Counter Terrorism Project.