THE ambitious Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System (CCTNS) is bearing fruits for the Maharashtra Police as all the First Investigation Reports (FIRs) are being registered on-line by the cops. Union and State governments combine have spent Rs 11,569.86 crore for the project in Maharashtra alone and a total of 21,09,585 FIRs have been registered on-line in the State since the launching of CCTNS in September 2015.

 

 

 

National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) has recently issued a CCTNS progress report and highlighted Maharashtra for 100 per cent connectivity of CCTNS in the police stations along with 17 states out of 35 states and union territories. However, technical set-up for the CCTNS is 93 per cent in Maharashtra. The CCTNS facilitates the process of filing complaints and follow-up, which is available at the click of a mouse.

 

In the year 2015, State police registered 4,23,265 FIRs, followed by 5,09,326 FIRs in year 2016, 4,62,374 FIRs in year 2017, 5,25,293 FIRs in year 2018 and 1,89,327 FIRs in first four months of year 2019. A police officer informed ‘The Hitavada’ that the project brought lot of changes in the functioning of the police force as it fully computerised process of crime registration, investigation and prosecution.

 

The CCTNS has a central database to provide national-level search facility as well as crime analytics for use by police and central agencies. Hence, inquiry of criminal including past offences can be searched at any police station across the country at a single click. It has also created Integrated Criminal Justice System as crime and criminal related data is being shared with police, courts, prison and forensics laboratories. CCTNS is a complex project with the project activities being undertaken by a number of stakeholders. The officer further informed that CCTNS’ basic aim was to integrate police networks of respective states for enhancing efficiency and efficacy of policing at all levels, especially at police station-level through adoption of principles of e-Governance.

 

The project was evolved as Mission Mode Project (MMP) under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) and more than 11,000 police stations and 600 supervisory offices of the state police have been brought under CCTNS loop. The project was rolled out in Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Kerala. After observing IT literacy among Maharashtra Police, the government decided to include Maharashtra State Police under the pilot project.