Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari on Thursday told police to register crimes, start FIRs and share the information with the Centre instead of suppressing crime statistics, a practice allegedly rampant earlier.

Suvendu was addressing the police at an administrative meeting, attended by senior officers.

"If there's a complaint, don't hide it. Start an FIR and handle it according to protocol. Always share information with the (Union) home department about the reported crimes, which has not been done for several years," he said.

"Share information on cases related to women and children. This practice was not followed previously — that shouldn’t be the case any more. Unless we know what the problem is, how shall we find a solution? If we keep on suppressing, one day it will blow up and go beyond our control."

Senior bureaucrats said the chief minister was referring to the alleged practice in Bengal of not sharing the complete crime data with the Centre.

"Allegations were common about the Trinamool government's reluctance to share the actual crime data with the Union home ministry, with the objective of creating the impression of a 'crime-free' state," a senior IPS officer told The Telegraph.

The Union government compiles the national crime records and publishes them annually through the NCRB portal.

Women’s helpdesk

Suvendu announced separate helpdesks to report crimes against women and cyber crimes. All police stations in the state will have these two helpdesks.

“From Nirbhaya to Abhaya, we have had very bitter experiences. We will give justice to all victims. We strictly follow a zero-tolerance policy on this matter,” he said.

He said cyber crime fraudsters were targeting even the less privileged.

“Some people who had enrolled in government schemes were cheated. Their accounts, too, were scammed. Fraudsters are tricking even these poor people. Cyber crimes have taken on the proportions of a pandemic,” the chief minister said.

He said the government would deploy more staff in these departments and train them to handle these cases.

Helpline response

Suvendu conceded that the Bengal police’s response to calls made to the helpline number 112 tended to be slow compared with that of their counterparts in other states. He promised to change that.

“In Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, the police have a response time of up to six minutes. In Bengal, the response time is three hours,” he said.

The state government plans to earmark vehicles to respond to helpline calls. “We will gradually increase the number of the vehicles and reduce the response time,” Suvendu said.

Police sources saidBengal already had the helpline like all the other states, but it had no dedicatedvehicles. No awareness drive had been undertaken, either, so people didn’t know aboutit.

And even if someone dialled the number, the response time was very slow because of the absence of dedicated vehicles, they said.

Zero interference

Suvendu referred to alleged interference in police work by politicians under the previous government, and told the police brass they would face no such interference on his watch.

“The police have their system. There are many systems… which will not face interference,” he said.

“Maintain hierarchy. Maintain seniority. I am giving you back your right and freedom to restore the lost glory of the police in Bengal.”

Police welfare

Suvendu said that although the police welfare board had been formally dismantled, issues relating to police welfare could be taken up with the chief minister’s office.

Some officers allegedly exploited the system in the garb of police welfare during Trinamool rule.