Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik with director-general of police Prakash Mishra at the 56th Senior Police Officers’ Conference in Cuttack on Saturday. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, Jan. 12: Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik today emphasised that Left-wing extremism allowed no “complacency” and asked the state police to continue with steps to tackle the menace.

Speaking at the closing session of the 56th Senior Police Officers’ Conference at the state police headquarters here, Naveen said: “While we have not had any major incident (in the past few months), the police must remain vigilant to contain the Naxal problem and prevent the spread of Left-wing extremism to new areas.”

“As we have seen in our neighbouring states, there is no room for complacency in this regard,” he added.

Underscoring the need for a change in the functioning of the police, the chief minister said: “Police officers…need to be sensitised to treat the people with dignity and a sense of service. In particular, the problems of women and children, scheduled caste and scheduled tribes and other weaker sections of society need to be addressed with greater empathy.”

Earlier, inaugurating the pilot project of the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) for Angul and Kendrapada districts, Naveen said: “I expect that full-scale implementation of the project will take place throughout the state within a few months”.

The central government-funded CCTNS project is a national e-governance plan, which aims to computerise and connect all police stations and higher police offices across the country.

As part of the pilot project in the two districts, computer peripherals have been provided and networking has been completed in 44 sites including one deputy inspector-general of police office, two superintendent of police offices, six offices of sub-divisional police officers, 33 police stations and two police control rooms.

In Odisha, the CCTNS project will cover 581 police stations, 111 sub-divisional police stations/ assistant police commissioner’s office, 36 superintendent of police offices, 37 control rooms, eight range offices, the police commissionerate and state police headquarters, said a State Crime Records Bureau official.

Networking to connect all these locations with each other and with all police locations across the country is being carried out by BSNL. While 25,600 police personnel need to be trained on CCTNS, training has already begun in Cuttack, Angul and Kendrapada, the official said.

CCTNS aims at providing enhanced information technology tools for investigation, crime prevention, law-and-order maintenance and other functions by creating a national databank of crime and criminals and their biometric profiles.

This database will have details of the criminal justice system including courts, jails, immigration, passport authorities, forensic laboratories and transport departments.

Inaugurating the conference yesterday, director general of police Prakash Mishra underscored the need to give top priority to crime against women, their prevention, prompt and proper investigation and prosecution leading to conviction in court of law.