Odisha has been appreciated as a better performing State in implementation of police modernisation scheme. The State has received the incentive grant of Rs 13.38 crore for this.
This was discussed in the State-level Empowered Committee Meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Aditya Parsad Padhi here on Tuesday wherein Additional Director General of Police Pranabindu Acharya presented the Action Plan for 2017-18 along with the updates for discussion.
Considering the proposed State Action Plan for 2017-18, Chief Secretary Padhi directed the Police department to focus on strengthening the evidence building system at police station level for enhancing the conviction rate.
Padhi directed to procure the equipment which would help the investigating officers in collection and scrutiny of the evidences from a crime situation. Padhi said this would help in tracking the criminals and enhancing the rate of conviction which would ultimately curtail the rate of crime as well.
The State Action plan of Rs 31.75 crore for police modernization during the year 2017-18 was approved in the meeting. Apart from that the Additional Action Plan for utilization of Rs 13.18 crore incentive grant received for better performance in 2016-17 was also approved in the meeting.
Replying to mediapersons, Chief Secretary Padhi said that the action plan was prepared for strengthening the anti-Maoist and anti-criminal and regular police operations. This scheme is being implemented for modernizing the police force and enhancing and their capacity with new modern equipment. The scheme is funded both by Government of India and State Government on 60:40 basis.
The Committee approved for procurement of 10 different types of equipment and instruments. Those included the devices for upgradation of intelligence gathering system, training resources, strengthening of armory, advanced technical devices for crime investigation, forensic laboratory, home guard equipment and mobility support to police etc. The high-tech devices like body camera, unmanned ariel machines for gathering of intelligence, higher speed vehicles, smart cell phone jammer, contraband buster, telescopic manipulator, real time viewing system, rock climbing wall, digital VHF, radio modem data communicator, canine equipment for detective dog squad, advanced video enhancer software with image authentication, high speed spectrophotometer for DNA lab, bullet proof helmet, equipment for social media monitoring cell were approved in the meeting for procurement. The unmanned ariel device would give real time surveillance and intelligence on Maoist and criminal movements. These can also be used during night hours.