Punjab police turns hi-tech

Chandigarh, Apr 26 (UNI) In order to ensure better connectivity and efficiency, the Punjab government has given its nod to provide cellular phones to all police officers upto the level of Station House Officers (SHOs).

These phones would be provided under the group-user scheme.

This was announced by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal while presiding over a meeting of senior police officers here today.

In response to a demand by the police officers, the Chief Minister agreed to grant a sum of Rs one crore as a matching grant for setting up transit accommodation at Chandigarh, for which the Punjab police had already been allotted a 1.05 acre of land by the Chandigarh Administration.

The entire project entailed a cost of Rs four crore, with the central government agreeing to provide Rs three crore as its share under the police modernisation scheme.

The Chief Minister asked DGP N P S Aulakh to put up a self-contained proposal for giving accidental insurance cover of Rs three lakh to each policeman in case of death.

Under the insurance scheme, the state government would provide Rs seven crore and an equal amount would be paid by the state police with a corpus fund of Rs 14 crore.

UNI