For effective law and order police beat system most important tool Shah

(Eds: Updating with details of services launched)
    Chandigarh, Sep 20 (PTI) Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday stressed upon the importance of a police beat system, saying it was the most important and a powerful tool for effective law and order and needs to be strengthened.
    Shah was speaking here after launching three citizen-centric services of Chandigarh Police -- Emergency Response Support System (ERSS - Dial 112), 'E-Beat Book' System and the 'E-Saathi App'.      
    At the outset, Shah, who was here to chair 29th meeting of the Northern Zonal Council, lauded the initiative of Chandigarh Police.
    "Sometimes small experiments take place in small corners of the country which later on give birth to big successes," he said.
    Shah observed that the beat system has been the cornerstone of the Indian Policing system since long.
    "As a former Home Minister of a state and now as Union Home Minister, I have been saying this that beat system should be given importance and strengthened," he said.    
    Shah said maybe some newly recruited Indian Police Service (IPS) officers may not know about the importance of the beat system, but it was most important tool for effective law and order.
    "Maybe we are from old school of thought, but till the time beat system is not active, law and order cannot be in good shape," he said and underlined the importance of a police beat system.
    Shah said a police beat system has information about various problems in the area but rued that "beat (system) is slowly fading away from the law and order scheme of things".
    He said Chandigarh has not only tried to keep the beat system going, but also made it modern while equipping it with technological aids.
    "Now, there is a need to give police image a makeover. Gone are the days when police was identified as a 'lathi' wielding force which used to talk to citizens in a harsh and angry tone. I believe that now with changing times there is a need to completely have an image makeover and this can be done when we accept technology," Shah said.
    He said as far as connecting police stations with computers and linking them with offices of SP, Commissioner's office goes, a lot of progress has happened in this field in our country.
    Among those who were present on the occasion included Punjab Governor and Chandigarh Administrator V P Singh Badnore, Chandigarh MP Kirron Kher and Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla.
    Advisor to UT Administrator Manoj Parida and Chandigarh Police DGP Sanjay Baniwal spoke on the occasion.
    Parida lauded the role played by Traffic Police in effectively controlling the city's vehicular traffic. 
    "Chandigarh has a population of 12 lakh but number of vehicles, including two-wheelers in the city are 15 lakh, which is the main cause of pollution. It also leads to traffic congestion but our Traffic Police has great reputation of managing it effectively," Parida said.
    Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) is one of the key projects of the Union Home Ministry under 'Nirbhaya Fund'. It has been designed to play a pivotal role in mitigation or preventing escalation of crime, especially against women and children, an official release said.
    ERSS provides a single emergency number 112, computer aided dispatch of field resources to the location of distress.
    The 'Dial 112' emergency response service is an initiative to strengthen proactive community policing that would end confusion amongst distress callers, who at times end up dialling 100 in fire or medical emergency cases.
    Till now, there were more than 20 numbers that were running for the help of public for various emergency situations, which were creating confusion to the distress callers. But after starting this service, public will not face these problems, the release said.
    The 'E-Beat Book' is a web and mobile based application which will ease the collection, updation and analysis of the information related to crime and criminals in a real time.
    The E-Beat Book would be linked with Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS), which would help in a real time updation of crime/criminal data.
    The 'E-Saathi' App would help the general public, including senior citizens, to remain in touch with police and also give suggestions to facilitate participative community policing.
    The beat officer would be able to provide services like passport verification, tenant verification, servant verification, character certification at a click of a button through the app, without the people needing to visit the police station. PTI SUN VSD KJ
KJ

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)