The project envisages interconnecting all police stations in the country and an additional 6,000 offices of supervisory police officers across India. (Representational photo)
The much-delayed Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and System (CCTNS) has started facilitating online services such as police verification to issue passports, hiring of drivers, tenants and domestic helps, besides registration of complaints of car theft and others, Home Ministry officials said.
National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) deputy director Prashun Gupta said CCTNS is facilitating pan-India search on complete national crime and criminal database that is accessible to investigating officers throughout the country.
“The CCTNS is facilitating online services such as police verification for issuance of passport, hiring of driver, tenant and domestic help besides registration of complaints of car theft, obtaining copy of FIR, status of FIR besides others,” he said.
The CCTNS, which was conceptualised in 2009 by then Home Minister P Chidambaram following the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, has been implemented in 14,710 police stations and 6,000 higher offices in the country.
The Rs 2,000-crore ambitious project could not be implemented in 894 police stations in Bihar and 51 police stations in the rest of the country so far due to certain technical problems, Gupta said. There are 15,640 police stations in the country.
The CCTNS database is accessible to the Central Bureau of Investigation, Intelligence Bureau, National Investigation Agency, Enforcement Directorate and the Narcotics Control Bureau.
It will also have digitised data related to FIR registration, investigation and chargesheets in all police stations. This will lead to development of a complete national database of crimes and criminals, the official said. Full implementation of the project with all the components will lead to a central citizen portal with links with state-level citizen portals that will provide a number of citizen-friendly services.
The project envisages interconnecting all police stations in the country and an additional 6,000 offices of supervisory police officers across India. Based on the CCNTS, three states — Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi — have started registering e-FIR while a mobile app will be launched soon so that citizens can have access to crime, criminals and property across the country, Gupta said.
Referring to the police verification process for passports, the NCRB official said Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have started a unique initiative based on CCNTNS where policeman while visiting an applicant, clicks a selfie with him or her with geo-tag (latitude and longitude) and sends it to the passport authorities for faster clearance of travel document.