Punjab Police go online: Project to digitise records, FIRs launched

Punjab Police on Monday took a digital leap in strengthening its capabilities to meet the law and order challenges with chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh rolling out the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS) project to keep digitised records of FIRs and information on crimes and criminals.

The CCTN ‘Go-Live’ roll-out has set the stage for the state to go paperless in terms of registering first information reports (FIRs) and general diaries, which will now be updated online by the police officials, who will be provided tablets for the purpose.

While 13-year-old data (FIRs and general diaries) have already been digitised as part of this project, all future data will be uploaded live from now on. The CM urged officials at police station and supervisory levels to work on the project, while directing the department to suitably reward successes achieved through the project, which has been linked with Saanjh to provide citizen services in a more effective manner by automating manual processes.

The objectives of the project is to improve quality of investigation and prosecution, linking crimes with criminals and vice versa, providing vital crime intelligence, providing better services to citizens and simplifying maintenance of records at the police station level. Of the ₹47 crore sanctioned by the Centre, ₹22.64 crore has been spent so far on the project, said state director general of police (DGP) Suresh Arora.

The project, which now covers 600 locations, including 400 police stations and higher offices from the sub-division to the state level, currently has a database of 13 years (2005 to 2017) for about 7.6 lakh FIRs and 29 lakh records of different investigation related forms, which can be searched and retrieved from the database online. The special task force data is also expected to be added by the month-end.

Under the project, police stations are connected through 512 KB connections, which are proposed to be upgraded to optical fibre by June-July this year at a cost of ₹26 crore, of which ₹12 crore has already been released, the DGP said.

The project is proposed to be expanded by linking it with different databases being maintained by the government. Going a step further, hand-held devices (tablets) will be given to all field officials to enable data entry from anywhere. Development of mobile and web-based apps for investigating officers and supervisory officers is also high on the agenda, according to an official release.