Nagpur: Citizens now can approach city police from the comfort of their homes, by filing complaints via the online portal of Maharashtra police. The service, though formally launched a couple of years ago, was made fully operational on Thursday when CP K Venkatesham and Jt CP Shivaji Bodkhe inaugurated the facility at the commissionerate.
The online or e-complaint facility is part of the central government’s ambitious ‘Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and System (CCTNS)’, which was inaugurated in the city by Governor CH Vidyasagar Rao and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis in 2015. Though the system was launched, and most units of the police department had gone ‘live’ then, the facility of online filing of complaints had been facing some hurdles. The system of e-complaint did not go beyond the formal inauguration, and Fadnavis’s symbolic lodging of a complaint of theft at Gittikhadan police station.
CP Venkatesham, who addressed a media briefing at his Civil Lines office with Jt CP Bodkhe and DCP (crime) Sambhaji Kadam, said the improved version of CCTNS is better equipped for smooth functioning of e-complaints. “The zonal DCP level officials and their staffers would be supervising the functioning of e-complaints. Adequate administrative measures have been taken to ensure the system runs smoothly, and there are no hurdles in the facility reaching citizens,” he said. The top cop said that within eight days of every complaint a decision would be presented to the complainant regarding the future course of action.
Venkatesham said citizens would get prompter result if they can mention the police station or locality where the problem has arisen, rather than sending the complaint to CP or DCP office, in which case the complaint may take some more time to reach the unit that shall tackle it. “Once the senior PI receives the complaint at the police station, he or she shall assign an Investigation Officer to look into the contents of the complainant filed. If there is a need to file FIR in a cognisable offence then the applicant shall be informed, or else it would be considered as a non-cognizable offence. If there is no ingredient to constitute an offence, even then the citizen would be informed accordingly,” he said. The CP assured that there would be administrative checks to rule out any delays or foul play in the system.
The top cop also lauded the various other facilities offered by the citizen portal of the state police, which would help lodging complaints for lost mobile phones, missing persons, and also gather information on FIRs and arrested persons, apart from absconders. Various forms for licenses and permissions too would be available from the website henceforth, said the CP.
