Chidambaram calls for completing crime tracking project

New Delhi, Mar 11 : Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday called for sticking to timelines and completing the Crime Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) Project as scheduled.

The Union Government is planning to complete the CCTNS project by year 2012.

Addressing a function organized to mark the beginning of the Silver Jubilee Celebrations of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) Chidambaram said: "The database will have a handshake with databases of other agencies of the criminal justice system like courts, jails, immigration and passport authorities."

"It would subsequently be extended to other national agencies through the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) so that terror and crime could be fought more professionally," he added.

The CCTNS is a flagship plan project of the Union Home Ministry having an outlay of Rs. 2,000 crore. The NCRB has been mandated to roll out the project.

So far, all the States and Union Territories have signed the Memorandums of Understanding and have created the Governance structure and State Designated Agency. Of these, ten States and Union Territories have already established the State Project Management Consultants (SPMC), while in fifteen States and Union Territories, the process of selection of SPMC is in progress.

"The first installment of funds has been released to all States and Union Territories. Selection process of a Software Development Agency for development of Core Application Software is under progress and technical evaluation of the shortlisted vendors is currently being done," Chidambaram said.

In his address, Chidambaram called upon domain experts to study the best practices in other countries in the fields of crime criminal database management systems and citizen-centric interfaces and services with a view to incorporating the same in the CCTNS project.

He also called for the testing and benchmarking of new cutting-edge web-enabled technologies in the field of fingerprint and palm print identification.