ANU(ChandigarhCityNews)
A sharp decline in heinous crimes marked the year 2017 for the Punjab Police, which notched up major successes in maintaining law and order in the wake of the Dera Sacha Sauda chief’s conviction and arrest, besides busting as many as eight terror modules and solving the series of targeted killings that had rocked the state over the past two years.
Among the major highlights of the year was the busting of the terrorist module in Moga on November 8 and the arrest of five persons, which led to solving all the eight cases of targeted killing of activists/leaders of the organizations associated with the minority community, which had been pending over the past two years. Similarly, the arrest of Jaswant Singh @ Kala and six other associates in July 2017 has solved three killings, including those of Paras Moni, Gurdev Singh of Dera Sacha Sauda, and Baba Lakha Singh @ Pakhandi Baba in Hanumangarh, Rajasthan.
Major breakthroughs were also made in tackling cases under the local and special Acts, particularly the NDPS Act. The police force also made major strides in building its technological edge and infrastructure, and improving the traffic systems in the state.
The Punjab Police has also made significant gains in implementing the Crime and Criminal Tracking System (CCTNS) by completing 24 Core Application Software Modules, integrating 08 Citizen Services being provided by Saanjh, providing hardware to all Police Stations, starting online registration of FIR and general diary, and digitization of last 10 years’ FIRs of all Police Stations in the state.
Also on the anvil during 2018 is implementation of the National Emergency Response System (NERS) Project, with the adoption of Centralized Call Taking and Distributed Dispatch, with a single Emergency Response No.112. The entire call taking would be at a Public Safety Answering Point (P-SAP) in Mohali with 60 work-stations, and 12 Police Control Rooms with 900 emergency vehicles, which is expected to be operational in April 2018.
Personnel management is another top priority for 2018, when nearly 4000 vacancies are expected to be filled up by direct recruitment, with focus on conducting recruitment every year to fill vacancies accruing through retirement and expansion.
Punjab Police would continue its focus on women, with organization of Zonal Women Conferences starting from 4 January 2018 to evolve a dedicated action plan which would be unveiled on March 8 at a state level function. Police personnel are being trained in showing the required gender – sensitivity in interacting with women, particularly victims of crime. There would be effective and prompt response on complaints of sexual assault/harassment, domestic violence, eve teasing and obscene calls/texts.
Re-dedicating itself to the maintenance of peace, national security and public order in the state in 2018, the Punjab Police will continue to strive to enhance its capacity in counter terrorism, tackling in organized crime and to upgrade its technological capabilities. It will gear itself to meet the challenges of modern policing by being accessible, sensitive and people friendly, and work in a fair and professional manner.
Giving details of the achievements of 2017 and plans for 2018, DGP Suresh Arora said peace, communal harmony and law & order were successfully maintained after the conviction of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh on August 25 in Panchkula. This was ensured through massive deployment of state and central armed police forces, preventive measures, gearing up of the entire police machinery, and quick and clear responses to initial challenges.
