New Delhi: The government of Sikkim is giving its data entry operators a crash course on the importance of the decimal point after data that was sent to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on heroin seizures led to several red faces in government and could even invite a breach of privilege motion in parliament.
State governments routinely send data on heroin seized to the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), which functions under the MHA. Only, the data entry operators in Sikkim were apparently unsure about where the decimal point needed to be added. In 2018, a seizure of 15,000 mg of heroin should have been entered as 0.015 kg. Similarly, in 2020, the 50,000 milligrams that were seized should have been recorded as 0.05 kg.
Instead, the MHA told parliament that Sikkim seized over 65,000 kg in these two years alone.
In the blame game that has begun, the MHA has absolved the NCRB, with an official saying that the bureau only “reproduces figures given by the state governments”. But opposition politicians have questioned the authenticity of the NCRB data, which is considered the touchstone of all crime records in the country.
Trinamool Congress MP Sukhendu Shekhar Ray asked, “Is NCRB a post office that just forwards information? Sanctity of data should be maintained by the NCRB and they should have an inbuilt system of checks before the data is shared with parliament.”
CPI MP Binoy Vishwam said he will raise the issue in parliament. “Undoubtedly, this is a breach of privilege. Answering parliamentary questions is a matter of utmost responsibility… The government needs to be made answerable for this kind of callous approach to parliamentary questions,” he said.
Representative image. Photo: Reuters/Romeo Ranoco
The issue was first highlighted by Sathiyam TV editor-in-chief Aravindakshan, who sought information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act from the various paramilitary and police forces, investigating agencies and the Sikkim government. After patching the information together, it was evident that the numbers did not add up.
“We asked the Sikkim police through an RTI application about who seized heroin in 2018 and 2020. The answer revealed that so much heroin was not seized in the state of Sikkim,” he said.
The problem may not be limited to Sikkim. In Manipur, heroin seizures have gone from around 17 kg in 2018 to over 260 kg in 2019 and more than 3,200 kg in 2020. The MHA says a clarification has been sought only from Sikkim and not from Manipur. The Wire could also not establish conclusive proof of inconsistency in Manipur’s data because media organisations, including The Wire, have reported about a spike in drug haul in that state.
P. Doungel, the Manipur director general of police (DGP), said he cannot comment on the data or if there are any anomalies or a sudden spike in seizures.
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Data entry operators at fault: Sikkim government
The Sikkim government was more forthcoming when The Wire reached out. Officials say a majority of seizures in the state are tablets that contain psychotropic substances, Because these quantities are calculated in milligrams, the same calculation was applied to heroin seizures.
“But since there was no column available in the Excel sheet for seizures in milligrams, the officials at the police stations concerned simply filled in the column for seizures in kilograms,” said officials.
Sikkim DGP A. Sudhakar Rao admits poor mathematics is to blame. “It’s a serious issue. We are now revamping the data entry system and the district SPs concerned have to certify the integrity (of the data) from now onwards. The corrected data for the two years will be shared with Narcotics Control Bureau.”
The inspector general (cyber crime) Manoj Tiwari said, “An inquiry has been ordered against senior officials of the State Crime Record Bureau (the nodal agency for the state for collecting crime data) and information about data entry operators of the police stations has been sent for action to be taken to the Special DGP concerned. The report will be available in a month. This mistake cannot be overlooked.”
Surprisingly, no eyebrows were raised in government even as the records on drug seizures fluctuated dramatically. There were zero seizures in 2016 and 2017, but 15,000 kg were seized in 2018. Again, zero seizures the next year were followed by a whopping 50,000 kg of heroin being seized in 2020.
In 2018, the Narcotics Control Bureau had, at a conference of state DGPs, pointed out the discrepancy in data and suggested this be corrected. “These details are noted in the files. We have gone through the files and it appears that earlier too there was a warning but it was ignored,” officials said.