Police personnel look on as a lawyer walks through the metal detector installed in the court complex in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 28: Women in the city need not have to take the pain of visiting police stations to lodge their complaints, they can file their complaints in a small kiosk resembling an ATM counter.

A touch screen-based Iclik is an instant complaint-lodging Internet kiosk, which was launched toady in the Bank of Baroda ATM at A-154 Saheed Nagar (near Sparsh Hospital).

The kiosk would enable the women to file their complaints, which would be later transferred to the server of city police. A police official said the server had been linked to the modern police control room, which would respond to the complainant. Subsequently, the complaint would be forwarded to the concerned police station.

The police launched the system as a pilot project, and depending on its response, it may set up more kiosks in the city.

The kiosk having a number of advanced features, including microphone, scanner, touch screen interface, in-built camera, GPRS connectivity and printer, can be used in three modes for registration of complaints. A complainant can lodge her complaint through voice recording, document scanning and physically typing with the machine.

The complainant would also get an acknowledgement after filing of her complaint. Besides, she would also get alerts regarding the status of her complainant through the mobile number given during filing of complaint.

A complainant needs to submit details in some of the mandatory fields such as mobile phone number and address displayed in the machine. Once it is done, the complainant can file her complaint by voice recording, which can be extended up to 120 seconds. The complainants can also either type or scan their complaints.

“The initiative has been started on a pilot basis and we would monitor its acceptance for one month. If the initiative becomes successful, we would install such machines at other places of the city as well,” said Joydeep Nayak, inspector general of police in charge of the Human Rights Protection Cell.

The police officials also assured the complainants of quick response to their complaints made through the kiosks. “We would act immediately through the modern control room and the PCR vans. The police have initiated a number of measures for safety of woman in the city and this would help the police in curbing crime against women,” said police commissioner R.P. Sharma.

The kiosks would be operational 24X7 and security guards would be deployed round the clock in front of the kiosk. An official also said they were planning to deploy a person to assist the complainants in the kiosk.

“This is a welcome move by the government. We do not need to wait in front of police stations to lodge our complaint. These kind of initiatives would encourage women to lodge their complaints in a hassle-free way,” said Valena Valentina, an Indian karate player, who was present during the launching ceremony.