The much delayed “Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and System” is finally being tried out in Delhi, where a shocking gang rape recently exposed the loopholes in the criminal justice system of the country. The project, is mostly a networked database of all crime records in the country.
Classified as one of the 31 mission mode projects under the National E-Governance plan of the Indian government, the project, has been under implementation for many years.
Around 14,000 police stations in the country will have access to the crime records bureau through computers so as to make it easier for the police to investigate crimes and keep track of criminal records. Accessibility to records will also improve right from police station levels to the top.
The Rs 2000 crore project was approved by the cabinet committee on economic affairs in June 2009 and was to be implemented by the National Crime Records Bureau. IT services companies like NIIT Technologies and Wipro have won contracts to implement the project in various parts of the country.
For instance, in August, NIIT Technologies won a Rs 43 crore project from the state of Odisha taking the total order value from this program to Rs 347 crores. The implementation in Odisha means digitization of police records of the last 10 years, linking of 581 police stations and 728 locations and training of police personell.
Repeat offenders, for example- the accused in the Delhi rape case, can be easily traced using the database and it also helps the police in better record keeping. This will also speed up the tardy passport verification process as the police can quickly check whether there are any crimes registered against an applicant.
The project has been implemented in some states like Karnataka already. However, it beats the purpose if the system is not implemented across the country.
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