As the economically vibrant Sundargarh district continues to be under threat from Jharkhand-based criminals, the move to introduce Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & System (CCTNS) is expected to curb the crime rate.
If everything goes on the expected lines, the Sundargarh Police District (SPD) and the Rourkela Police District (RPD) are likely to be linked to CCTNS in next three to six months.
Sources said the district shares around 225 km of forest border from Topadihi to Talsara with Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum and Simdega districts.
Sundargarh further shares nearly 70-km border with Chhattisgarh. Till two years ago, 10 police stations of RPD bore the brunt of Maoism originating from West Singhbhum.
Similarly, the SPD having around 150 km of border is affected by dreaded Jharkhand-based extortionist outfits People’s Liberation Front of India (PLFI) and Pahadi Cheetah (PC).
The criminal cases of the district include extortion related violence, cyber crime, loot, burglary, highway robbery, murder for gain, rape and sorcery. Besides, the police have tackle Maoist menace.
Visiting the district on Friday, M Akhaya, Additional Director General of Police (ADG), State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB), Odisha said in the first phase, 15 police stations and five other police facilities of SPD would be shortly linked to CCTNS.
He said solar power systems would be installed at Dharuadihi, Hatibari, Kinjirkela and Talsara police stations, while nine interior sites would have V-sat service for intranet connection.
Sundargarh SP Sanjeev Arora said the facility taken up under e-governance would facilitate collection, storage, retrieval, analysis, transfer and sharing of data and information with police establishments across the country.
The police stations would be computerised for better policing, he added.
Rourkela SP AN Sinha said information and data sharing could be made in real time and the integrated network would ensure transparency on the progress of the complaints filed.
Police sources said the RPD would also require V-sat service and solar power arrangement at least at four interior pockets. Under the manual practice, usually it takes a couple of days and hectic efforts to track criminals of Jharkhand, they added.