Recently, govt. extended the deadline for implementation of the Rs 2,000-crore CCTNS project to March 2017

Let’s know more about it!!

What is the CCTNS project?

CCTNS is a Mission Mode Project under the National e-Governance Plan of Govt of India.

The Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) project was launched in 2009 in the aftermath of the 26/11 attacks.

It aims at establishing seamless connectivity among 15,000 police stations across the country, and an additional 5,000 offices of supervisory police officers.

What are the objectives of CCTNS?

• Make the Police functioning citizen friendly and more transparent by automating the functioning of Police Stations.
• Improve delivery of citizen-centric services through effective usage of ICT.
• Provide the Investigating Officers of the Civil Police with tools, technology and information to facilitate investigation of crime and detection of criminals.
• Facilitate interaction and sharing of information among Police Stations, Districts, State/UT headquarters, etc.
• Assist senior Police Officers in better management of Police Force.
• Keep track of the progress of Cases, including in Courts.
• Reduce manual and redundant records keeping.

How was such an idea of CCTNS conceived?

The project was the brainchild of former Home Minister P Chidambaram.

CCTNS entailed digitisation of data related to FIRs registered, cases investigated, and chargesheets filed in all police stations, in order to develop a national database of crime and criminals.

It was envisaged as a system to facilitate collection, storage, retrieval, analysis, transfer and sharing of data and information at the police station.

Why was this system needed?

There was lack of communication between police of different states. Each police station was an island, where records were maintained manually.

The need was felt for a technology-driven network which would enable real- time interaction between police stations.

What is the progress made in the project?

2009: CCEA approved the project with an allocation of Rs. 2000 crore. The initial deadline for setting it up was 2012, which was revised to March 2015.

2015: Union Cabinet decided to revamp and fast-track the project, and complete its implementation by March 2017.

New Development: Govt. has decided to implement the Integrated Criminal Justice System (ICJS) by integrating CCTNS with e-courts, e-prisons, forensics and prosecution in order to transfer data among the various pillars of the criminal justice system.

Over 11,600 police stations countrywide are now using the CCTNS software to register FIRs. More than 26 lakh FIRs were registered through CCTNS over the past year.

How will citizens benefit from CCTNS?

It will lead to the creation of a central citizen portal with links to state-level citizen portals.

This will bring several citizen-friendly services online such as police verification for purposes including passports, reporting a crime, tracking the progress of a case, reporting of grievances against police officials, access to victim compensation fund, and legal services.

A list of proclaimed offenders, sex offenders and most wanted criminals will also be published on the citizen portal.

Published with inputs from Pushpendra