New Delhi, June 14 (IANS) The union cabinet Thursday approved a home ministry proposal to extend the duration of implementing the crime and criminal tracking network and system (CCTNS) project by three more years till March 31, 2015.
The earlier time limit expired on March 31 this year, according to an official release here.
The approval for the network was accorded by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) at its meeting here chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
CCTNS is a project which aims at creating a comprehensive and integrated system for enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of policing at the police station-level through adoption of principles of e-governance.
It also envisages creation of a nation wide networked infrastructure for evolution of information technology-enabled state-of-the-art tracking system around investigation of crime and detection of criminals.
The project cost is Rs.2,000 crore, fully funded by the central government.
The CCEA also decided to permit release of unutilised funds beyond March 2015 to the states and union territories and, if it became necessary, the home ministry will be competent to make the fund releases with the approval of the home secretary or the home minister, without seeking formal extension, up to a year till March 2016.
The CCTNS project will benefit more than 15,000 police stations and more than 5,000 higher police offices across the 35 states and union territories.
"Capacity building and change management is targeted towards more than two million police personnel for effective delivery of services," the release said.
The scheme was launched four years ago in 2008 and was given time till March 2012 under the 11th Five-Year Plan that ended in March 2012.
The CCEA had approved the scheme and its implementation strategy on June 19, 2009, and the key project implementation activities were initiated by all states and union territories from the 2009-10 financial year.
The home ministry had released funds to the tune of Rs.418.87 crore to the states and the union territories and about 4.54 lakh personnel have been trained for capacity building, against a target of about 11.34 lakh personnel, under the project.
The project also enabled capacity-building and completion of infrastructure work for 861 units of the targeted 902 units.
Throughout the nation, 17 states and union territories have issued letters of intent or have signed contracts for the selection of system integrators, whereas 31 states and union territories have issued request for proposals (tenders) for project implementation.
The inter-ministerial consultations for project conceptualisation during 2008-09 took time and moreover, general elections in 2009 and enforcement of model code further extended the approval process.
While the project implementation was envisaged from 2008-2012, the cabinet approval was received only on June 19, 2009, which was a year later than envisaged.
Other activities, including signing of memoranda of understanding, formation of governance structure committees, and establishment of state designated agencies were thus delayed as well.
Also, it was conceptualised that the software development would be completed within a year of hiring the vendor, June 2011, including gathering software functional requirements from three states and union territories.
However, the number was later expanded to 10 states and union territories to ensure maximum coverage. This added to the delays in the software development in the project, the release said.
