...infiltrating the terrorist organizations with spies? Is that only in movies and theory books? This is the basics of human intelligence.

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I missed reading the details in newspapers due to travel. But assuming that this would be limited to Karnataka only, and a unilateral effort from our state, I think this won't lead to the results we want. How do you know if someone is a tourist or not? Whats the duration of temporay stay for which an id card is not mandatory? And how would you validate someone's claim that he is living in the state only for x days and not x months.

I will read more about this, but this has got to be a national level effort. Further, do you think these are practical?

• At any point, if you can't produce your state photo id, you are liable to be prosecuted.
• The burden of proof that you are an identified resident of the state should lie on you

Is a national finger print database a bad idea? Can this be the complimentary or primary id. Police would have the readers. And major public places will have the readers at entrance. Put your thumb on it, and then enter the station, airport or whatever. Security agencies will be watching things asynchronously, and tracking their subjects of interest. 

Now, you would be getting into privacy laws. Yes, there are some blurred lines there. But can be debated and worked upon, as nobody is talking about a GPS on people's bodies - you are being tracked only around public places, and not continuously.

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SB, basic policing is out of gear. what will new gear do? the state intelligence agency is in serious trouble. last year i remember reading that they have difficulty getting personnel and what little people they have prolly have lot of political interference. police work is prolly more lucrative but political interference with police work is legendary. how many instances of police officers caught by lokayukta with seriously disproportionate assets? what happened? corruption is not incidental to this. corruption allows this. people locked up in jail can get access to cell fones using which they can deal around. i really dont know where to start on this but this mess is very very very very deep. corruption will kill this country literally.

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right. that has to be the the most important factor. you cant estimate all that is to be estimated without this, irrespective of how many Qs and James Bonds you have on your team. this falls under preventive policing. very crucial. the issue is how to get good qualified personnel to work on this. also important to understand how much leeway does the center allow the state CoD and how much reach does the center have. this will also need some demographic changes in the forces. will need some very local and very representative people in the forces. and really, to protect blr and the state, you need to protect the access roads in the hills and highways south of EC and the rest. folks at the border need to be motivated to look out for more than contraband liquor and find that job rewarding beyond skimming on commercial taxes and duties. i read papers and all sorts of reports on stuff flowing in from TN and Kerala through the hills. you dont have to deny anybody entry, but perhaps can check everyone. the question is it feasible?

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I am amongst the invitees of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) to a meeting being convened by them for working out the future strategy and advocacy for better policing in Karnataka on Friday, 8 August 2008 in the afternoon/evening. The meeting will discuss further actions of the campaign and also the recent developments in Kerala where the Police Act Drafting Committee has posted their Draft Police Bill on internet and invited comments from the public.

CHRI has also invited me to participate in the Lecture and Launch of our two reports that will be held on 9 August.

If any one else interested in attending, I expect CHRI will be happy to extend an invitation.

Muralidhar Rao

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