Home ministry to have new depts to check emerging threats

Tackling communal violence, growing radicalisation of youths and cyber crime may be looked by new departments to be carved out in the Union home ministry.
This was hinted by Home Minister Rajnath Singh at a meeting of the consultative committee of Members of Parliament attached to the home ministry here today.
Singh informed the members this is for the first time that suggestions of the consultative committee are being obtained on the restructuring and reorganisation of the ministry.
He said some changes have taken place in the structure and processes of the ministry during the last 70 years but there is still a need to start a larger discussion and generate new ideas for reorganising the home ministry in a manner that it can meet the rapidly changing security environment and emerging threats such as cyber crime, according to an official statement.

A home ministry official said the ministry considers communal violence, growing radicalisation of youths, among others, as emerging threats.
Singh informed it is a beginning and if necessary further discussions will take place.

There are six departments in the home ministry, including department of states and department of Jammu and Kashmir affairs and 21 divisions like border management, left wing extremism, union territories and foreigners.
During the meeting, the MPs were informed regarding the existing work load, the requirement for long term planning to deal with issues such as terrorism and narcotics.
The need for police reforms, cyber security, porous borders, revisiting of various laws was also highlighted during the meeting in which the home minister asked the members to give their suggestions on the subject.

The members appreciated Singh for taking up this step as such subjects were never discussed earlier in the consultative committee meetings.
The MPs said they will provide more inputs in due course and if needed, the subject may be discussed in subsequent meetings of the committee.
Singh told members their suggestions have been noted by the ministry and will be examined. He also mentioned that there should be a committee of professionals for thorough study of the subject.
Lok Sabha MPs Bhagirath Prasad, Devendra alias Bhole Singh, Geetha Kothapalli, Hukum Singh, Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav, Kirti (Jha) Azad, Thokchom Meinya and T G Venkatesh Babu and Rajya Sabha MPs Bhubaneswar Kalita, K Keshava Rao, Mukul Roy, Ram Gopal Yadav, Ranee Narah, S Muthukaruppan and Shantaram Naik attended the meeting.

Ministers of state for home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir and Kiren Rijiju and senior officials of the home ministry attended the meeting.