KOCHI: The District Crimes Records Bureaus(DCRB) across the state will soon become ‘paperless’, with the implementation of the Crime and Criminal Tracking and Networking System (CCTNS).
The CCTNS, a mission code project initiated by the Central Government in early 2013, is an online system that links all the police stations and the related institutions across the country, bringing them all under one umbrella. Of the 19 DCRBs in the State, seven are already in the final stages of implementing the project, while the others are in the process of completion.
“Around 300 files are manually handled at this office daily, making it a tough job for the officials to collect, monitor, categorise and retrieve data. If everything goes as planned, the DCRB in Kochi will start full-fledged functioning in a few months,” said CCTNS, Kochi, nodal officer Amos Mammen.
“Here, the infrastructure facilities are already in place, and procedures are on to complete the formalities in a couple of months or so,” he added. “After the completion of the project, all the data pertaining to crime and criminals could be accessed online through the core application system (CAS). Hence, it could save coast and the time of officials as the details could be accessed remotely through smart-phones,Ipads and laptops. Moreover, the data, including fingerprint and photograph of criminals, could be retrieved easily, whenever needed, for the follow up of investigations,” Mammen added.
Meanwhile, CCTNS, Kerala, assistant nodal officer Shafin Ahammed told ‘Express’ that all the DCRBs would be made ‘paperless’ in 3-6 months. “The project is getting implemented in a phased manner, and several modules have to be updated. However, the project is progressing steadily,” he said.
“The CCTNS project has a wide perspective when it comes to automating the entire crime-related institutions in the country. As of now, the automated general diary (GD) and FIR registrations are working in full swing in ten police districts in the State, while the investigation and the data modules related to crimes and criminals are in the developing stage. The remaining nine police districts will be soon equipped with the automated system,” he added.
“DCRBs will be a coordinating agency if the CCTNS gets implemented in the 260 police stations in the tate. Considering the magnitude of the project, it would benefit the officials not only in the State but also across the country,” Ahammed said.
Currently, the digitisation of crime records is progressing well, with details from the year 2000 being collected. The software used for the automation process has been developed by Wipro Limited. The infrastructure was developed by Tata Consultancy Services is the first state in the country to launch the CCTNS project using core application software.