After prolonged delay, implementation of CCTNS finally takes off

Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Feb 23: After numerous hurdles and prolonged delay, the implementation of the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS), a Mission Mode Project aimed at creating a comprehensive and integrated system for enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of policing by adopting e-governance, has finally begun and initially Jammu and Udhampur districts are being covered under the Centrally sponsored scheme on pilot basis.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that ever since the selection of Jammu and Udhampur districts under the Centrally sponsored scheme on pilot basis, the implementation of CCTNS was marred by numerous problems and till the recent past no considerable progress was made on the ground.
Initially, the implementation got delayed due to poor response to the tendering process and when this process completed and the Letter of Intent was issued to the vendor on July 19, 2012 the company started facing internal problem and this further delayed the implementation of the scheme, sources said while disclosing that till December 2012 the bidder didn’t sign the contract despite two show-cause notices.
Taking serious note of its reluctance to sign the contract, the Ministry of Home Affairs threatened to go in for black-listing the company if it failed to sign the agreement without further delay and finally the intense pressure from the MHA and the J&K Police Headquarters yielded results and last month agreement was signed between Crime Wing of the State Police and System Integrator M/s Navayuga Infotech Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad, sources said, adding the company has almost completed survey in the police stations, police posts and offices of senior officers in Udhampur district and will shortly carry out exercise in Jammu district also.
In response to a question, sources said that a total of 51 sites (police stations, police posts and higher offices) would be covered under the scheme in both the districts and the outcome of the scheme would be closely monitored and form basis for selection of more districts for coverage under CCTNS, adding in the next phase the Srinagar and Baramulla districts are likely to be covered under the scheme.
According to the State Progress Dashboard, a total of 17784 police personnel have been trained till December 31, 2012 in CCTNS, which is an effort to modernize the police force giving top priority to enhancing outcomes in the areas of crime investigation and criminals detection, in information gathering and its dissemination among various police organizations and units and in enhancing the efficiency and effective policing at all levels especially at the Police Station level through adoption of principles of e-governance and creation of networked infrastructure for evolution of IT-enabled state-of-the-art tracking system.
The police functions to be covered under CCTNS include registration, investigation, and prosecution solutions, case management system, criminal information system, information registers, trial management system, summons and warrants management system, automatic fingerprint identification system, law and order solutions, beats management system, duty allocation system and police messaging system etc.
When contacted, IG Crime, A G Mir confirmed that agreement has been signed with M/s Navayuga Infotech Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad and implementation of CCTNS has taken off. “We will complete implementation of CCTNS in Jammu and Udhampur districts within next one or two months and hopefully entire State would be covered within one and half year”, he added.