CAG draws poor picture of UP Police;use of 80 pc outdated weapons

Lucknow, May 12 (UNI) Drawing a poor picture of Uttar Pradesh policing system, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has rapped the state government for ''poor implementation'' of police modernisation programme.

In its latest report for the year ending March 31, 2005, which was tabled in UP assembly today, the CAG said implementation of the scheme in UP was ''deficient.'' Despite availability of sufficient funds, there was shortfall of 75 per cent in construction of houses and 77 per cent in non-residential buildings against respective targets.

Talking strong expection on the use of outdated weapons, the CAG said it was unfortunate that 80 per cent of the arms used by the force were'' outdated.'' Besides, there was no fresh addition to the existing fleet of vehicles to enhance the mobility of police.

The report said city control rooms remained ill-equipped and there was no capacity augmentation of training and forensic science labs. There was also no progress in office automation and computerisation of police stations.

The report also commented that an efficient monitoring mechanism was absent, both at the levels of the government and the department.

The CAG report said the centre introduced the scheme of Modernisation of Police Force in 1969 to provide additional infrastructure to the state police to deal with growing crime, terrorist and naxal activities and meet internal security threat effectively.

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