To lower the footfall in the police stations, Assam Police has started the online complaint registering facility through Crime & Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) portal.
A source in the CCTNS team of the Assam Police said, “The online complaint registration system has started recently and if the public use the facility, they can register complaints with the police without going to the police station.”
As soon as a complaint is registered online the local police will be informed about the same and the officer-in-charge is expected to immediately pursue the matter and take action as per the requirement of the complaint.
If after investigation the police find that the complaint needs to be converted into a first information report (FIR), the complainant would be contacted and called to the police station for his signature.
The complainant can also upload his/her digital signature and affix it with the complaint, the source revealed.
The CCTNS portal was launched by the Assam Police in January 2016 without the complaint registration facility being open to the public.
When the portal was launched, services like tenant verification, domestic help verification/employee verification, character certificate verification, requests for protest or strike, requests for procession and requests for event performances were accepted by the public online.
There were some connectivity issues earlier but at present most of the police stations across the state are connected by internet.
Out of 312 police stations across the state 270 police stations are connected and the relevant public under those police stations can now register complaints online. The list of the police stations is available on the Assam Police website.
As for Guwahati, all the police stations are connected and the public here can easily register complaints online, the source claimed.
Public fails to avail all 8 CCTNS services due to lack of awareness
The state nodal officer for CCTNS (Crime & Criminal Tracking Network and Systems) portal, ADGP AK Jha, did not leave a single stone unturned to create an effective CCTNS system but the irony remains that the public is not using the services.
A source in the Assam Police headquarters said, “The nodal officer, AK Jha, had been invited as a special advisor on CCTNS implementation by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs,” adding that Jha received this national recognition because of his dedication towards the entire CCTNS process.
But in spite of the officer’s efforts the system is hardly used by the public as most of them do not know about it.
The CCTNS has been providing 8 services namely – character certificate, employee verification, tenant verification, domestic verification, procession request, event performance request, protest/strike permission and passport/PRC verification. The 9th is the recently added complaint registration service.
Of the eight public services that were available, only three services were mostly used by the public between 1st January 2017 and 9th May 2018.
14,717 people applied for character certificates, 1,051 persons applied for employee verification and 41,396 passport verifications were connected through CCTNS.
Between January 2017 and 9th May 2018, only 1 request for tenant verification was registered; there were 3 requests for domestic help verification and 1 request for event performance.
A source in the CCTNS said, “Because of lack of awareness people are not using the service.”
Assam police has also submitted proposals to the government for awareness generation but the government is yet to respond to it.
Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who also holds the portfolio of Home, did not take any initiative to promote the CCTNS service in the last two years.
It is also a loophole that the Guwahati police commissionerate did not mandate tenant verification. The public hardly apply for verification because tenant/domestic help or other verifications are not mandatory.