DGP Arora: Punjab police augmenting presence on social media

Taking cognisance of the growing threat of radicalisation taking place on social media the Punjab Police is continuously augmenting its presence on such platforms It also intends to have its own Facebook Twitter and YouTube accounts to interact directly with the citizens give timely responses to queries and provide a complaint redressal mechanism These accounts will be launched this month Punjab DGP Suresh Arora told a news conference here this eveningArora said police is continuously augmenting its social media presence as it was felt that there was a lot of misinformation being spread on this platform by inimical elements A mobile application having dossiers of over 80000 active criminals and equipped with artificial intelligence and face detection system had been operationalised he said adding that court permissions had been obtained for conducting 159 trials through videoconferencing in organised crime casesAsked about gangsterturned activist Lakhbir Singh alias Lakha Sidhana making claims of having livestreamed from jail earlier and alleged that everything is available in jails which he described as a den of drugs and addiction the DGP replied such allegations were always taken very seriouslyThe Additional DG is seized of the matter and he is taking action he said Arora said upgradation of counterterrorism capacity is also high on Punjab police plans for 2018 The state police is set to operationalise a crack force Special Operation Group SOG which would be trained and equipped to be at par with the best in the worldAlso on the anvil during 2018 is the implementation of the National Emergency Response System NERS Project with the adoption of Centralised Call Taking and Distributed Dispatch with a single Emergency Response No 112The entire call taking would be at a Public Safety Answering Point PSAP in Mohali with 60 workstations and 12 Police Control Rooms with 900 emergency vehicles expected to be operational in April 2018 he said 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 8 Citizen Services providing hardware to all Police Stations starting online registration of FIR and general diary and digitisation of last 10 years FIRs of all Police Stations in the stateAbout polices achievements last year Arora said 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 activistsleaders of the organisations associated with the minority community which had been pending over the past two yearsAsked about allegations of torture by Punjab Police of UK national Jagtar Singh Johal arrested in connection with targeted killings in Punjab he said Johals custody is with NIA nowWhether there is any violation from our side or so called allegations being made the NIA will look into that you will get the truth he said I am concerned about safety and security of Punjab if anyone will harbour evil eye that will be sorted out No national or international conspiracy will be allowed to bring disharmony and disturb its hard earned peace he added responding to Johals arrest in targeted killings case He said the state government had sought companies of paramilitary from the Centre for deployment at places where key gangsters are lodged to block possibilities of any communication from inside jail like through Facebook or social mediaAsked about international karate player Kuldeep Kaur committing suicide in Batala recently alleging police inaction in a property dispute DGP said that he had spoken to the IG border Range regarding this The basic allegation is inaction on part of the local police The IG Border Range has shifted investigation of thecase out of Batala and a SIT has been set up headed by a lady officer he saidOn the clamour against the Punjab Control of Organised Crime Act PCOCA Arora defended the stringent law stating that there are enough checks and balances to prevent misuse Revealing the comparative figures relating to heinous crimes in 2016 and 2017 the DGP said murders came down to 656 from 771 attempt to murder to 795 from 862 kidnapping or abduction to 1462 from 1591 robbery to 116 from 147 and dacoity to 26 from 43Given the states sensitivity resulting from being located along the international border with Pakistan a lot of effort was made during the year to strengthen the second line of defence to thwart crossborder terrorism by providing equipment and vehicles to the border districts including BP morchas thermal imagers BP Tractors body protectors micro UAVs etcAntiriot capacity has also been strengthened while acquisition of water cannons and armored carriers is under progress he saidThe contentreporting displayed on our websitewwwmid daycomis provided ASIS AS AVAILABLE by us from third party agencies sources without any verification from 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