The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Coastal police stations to have boats by January

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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Coastal police stations to have boats by January

Staff Reporter

Impetus to e-governance in police administration

Seven of the 12 coastal police stations are operational
Services of sailors from the Indian Navy to be availed

K.P. Jain

Coimbatore: The 12 coastal police stations in the State will get two boats each by January 2009 and all the stations will be functional by August this year, Director-General of Police (DGP) K.P. Jain said on Saturday.

He was here to take part in the valedictory of the 20th Tamil Nadu Home Guards’ State-level professional and sports meet.

Mr. Jain told reporters that seven of the 12 coastal police stations were operational. Buildings for eight stations were ready. Of the sanctioned strength of 175, 162 personnel had been inducted on completion of sea-swimming training imparted by the Coast Guard.

In the second phase, coastal police stations would require 300 more police personnel. These stations would be provided with two boats each, one weighing 12 tonnes and the other five tonnes. Services of sailors from the Indian Navy would be used either on deputation or by absorbing retired personnel.

The Centre was keen on e-governance in police with focus on computerisation and networking and had allotted Rs.2,000 crore for the project to be completed in four years. Tamil Nadu, accounting for ten per cent i.e., 1,400 out of the 14,000 police stations in the country, hoped to get a sizeable share.

He said the State government had provided broadband connections to all police stations.

In addition to the software from the Centre, the State police would also develop customised software. Computerisation would help in effective inter-office administration besides ensuring speedy service to people.

To a query on Cyber Crime Wings not in place in other commissionerates excepting Chennai, Mr. Jain said cyber crime wing was just a nomenclature and such cases were being investigated even now. The government was keen to have the Cyber Crime Wings in place shortly.

He said more than 100 of the Third Police Commission recommendations had been accepted by the government in principle. One of them was to empower the DGP to prepare a calendar for recruitment for two years, and fill vacancies without seeking government approval every time. The State police had 15,000 vacancies out of the sanctioned strength of one lakh personnel and all these would be filled in two years, he said.

In the wake of the seizures at Gummidipoondi, police were adopting a two-pronged strategy to monitor iron scrap trade. The merchants would be asked to inform the police if they found any arms or ammunition in iron scrap, Mr. Jain said. Similarly, the police would keep a watch on foundries.

As per the police commission recommendations officers up to the rank of sub-inspectors would be provided with cell phones. Diesel quota for patrol vehicles had been doubled.

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