The Jharkhand Police has sought digital signatures for all superintendents of police to implement online system of registering First Information Report (FIR), especially in model police stations and in the wake of the deadline given by Chief Minister Raghubar Das. A discussion with all the SPs is likely to be organised on Thursday to find out way forward for launching the system in Jharkhand.
Das has reportedly directed the State police to begin the process of online registration from May and remove glitches in the system to facilitate hassle free complaint registration.
“We have asked for digital signatures from Government of India and will discuss online registration process with all the SPs on Thursday,” said spokesperson for Jharkhand Police, ADG, SN Pradhan.
The digital signature will be used only after vetting the documents submitted online by a complainant and verifying credentials of the people registering FIR. An FIR will be registered after the SP will append his digital signature. The project, a second attempt to introduce online FIR, will be implemented in phases beginning from urban police stations and will be expanded to other parts in subsequent phases however no blueprint has been prepared in the direction so far.
“We will take the matter on pilot basis. That way we will be able to find any glitches in the system and slowly we will implement the system in other police stations,” maintained Pradhan.
Interestingly, the system of online FIR has been introduced in 2013 under the centre’s ambitious project- Crime and Criminal Tracking Network Systems (CCTNS) however the project could not take off as envisaged due to infrastructural constraints. Around 382 police stations have been equipped with the facility of online registration and of the total around 150 to 160 (police stations) remains up (active) all the time, claimed Pradhan.
The present system of online registration which is apparently based on the ‘SMART’ (Strict and Sensitive, Modern and Mobile, Alert and Accountable, Reliable and Responsive; Techno-savvy and Trained) policing concept departs from CCTNS to the extent that vetting will be necessary before appending digital signature of an SP to convert an application into FIR. As usual a gestation period will be required before a formal complaint can be translated into FIR.
Meanwhile, State police expressed that around 300 of the total of 430 police stations are patterned on model police station concept however police officials vowed that more needs to be done to make police people friendly.
“There is no finishing line for model police station and we have to improve a lot in terms of training police personnel to make them treat a complainant as a client,” added the Spokesperson.
Significantly, the CM had also emphasised on better policing through better attitude towards a complainant and underscored the necessity becoming people friendly during his visit to Jamshedpur on Tuesday.