Patil calls for modernisation of police telecommunications

New Delhi, Apr 03 (UNI) Home Minister Shivraj Patil today stressed the need for modernising the police force and upgrading its telecommunication and intelligence gathering machanism to effectively deal with low intensity proxy wars and terrorism.

Inaugurating a three-day conference of the All India Police Radio Officers organised by the Directorate of the Coordination Police Wireless, Mr Patil said that strengthening information/intelligence gathering system was crucial in dealing with terrorism as traditional weapons could not be of much use in such situation.

Strengthening communication system was a must, not only for such low intensity wars but also to meet the other complex challenges of today and fulfill the needs and apsirations of the modern society, he said. Underlining the importance of efficient functioning of the police telecommunication for the enforcement of law and order and in the conduct of elections, he said that they also play a crucial role during natural calamities and other situation requiring police help and coordinated effort.

Mr Patil said that the centre is consistently giving required help to the states for police modernisation. It had last year released Rs 900 crore to the purpose, he said and hoped that with the help from the centre, Indian police telecommunication would be among the best in the world in all respect.

He expressed dissatisfaction that POLNET (Integrated National Police Telecommunication in India) has not reached to all the police stations despite the Satellite terminals i.e VSATs having been installed and commissioned at the level of state capitals and district headquarters.

The progress in implementing the Multi Access Radio Telephones s(MART) at the police station level has been slow, he pointed out and said that so far MARTS installed only 1587 police stations as against the 11502 planned initially. He stressed the need for completion of the project by further extending the connectivity upto police station level at the earliest and said that the ministry is exploring the solutions to various problems encountered in implementing the project.

About some states' reservation that more modern technology could be utilised instead, Mr Patil said that first the current project should be completed, then new ones could be adopted. He emphasised the need for redundancy in the security related issues and asked the delegates of the conference to follow up the matter with due earnestness.

The police radio officers have an important role to play in modernisation of police telecommunications, he said and added that the conference could play a useful role in chalking out strategies for development and in sorting out the problems they would face in the introduction of lastest technologies.

On this occasion, the Home Minister also conferred President's Police Medal to the awardees of DCPW. He also released a sovenier and inaugurated an exhibition on communication equipment that was organised associating the stakeholders from the industry.

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