In order to make Punjab a safe and secure state as per the directions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav on Friday directed all the district heads to prioritise registration of the first information report (FIR) even in petty crimes including snatching and theft to crackdown against crime in the state.
“It has come into my notice that field officers usually shows reluctance in registering FIR, especially in petty crimes. There should be a free registration of FIRs in all the districts which will help in maintaining law and order in the state,” he said.
The DGP was chairing a state-level crime review meeting via Video Conference with all the senior field officers and Heads of Operational Wings to evaluate performance of all the 28 Police districts and take stock of the ongoing fight against organised crime, drug trafficking and terrorism. Special DGP Special Task Force (STF) Kuldeep Singh, Special DGP Internal Security RN Dhoke, ADGP Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF) Promod Ban, Commissioners of Police (CPs), Range IGPs/DIGs and Senior Superintends of Police (SSPs) attended the meeting presided over by DGP Punjab from Punjab Police Headquaters (PPHQ) here.
DGP Gaurav Yadav directed all the CPs/SSPs to pay attention towards making arrests in heinous crimes and producing challans in the Court in time bound manner. He also asked them to hold weekly meetings to review the undertrial cases and improve the conviction rate.
While reviewing the performance of all the Police districts, he lauded the efforts of districts which did good work and asked the underperforming districts chiefs to pull up their socks. He also asked the CPs/SSPs to focus on arresting proclaimed offenders (POs) and absconders.
Stressing on the need to pay special attention on pending investigations, he directed the CPs/SSPs to speed-up the investigations and quality of investigations should be improved. He also asked CPs/SSPs to take preventive action against criminal elements.
The DGP also took stock of the ongoing drive against drugs and asked the district police chiefs to focus on drug suppliers and peddlers to bring down the street availability of drugs. Sustained follow up in important, he said, while directing the field officers to establish forward and backward linkages in all the drug cases to catch the big fish.
He also directed the CPs/SSPs to freeze illegally acquired properties of big fish under section 68F of the NDPS Act.
He also asked the CPs/SSPs to focus on forming more Village Level Defence Committees (VLDC) in the state. Giving target of forming at least 12000 VLDCs, he said that there should be one VLDC in each village. Currently, there are 6500 VLDCs in the state helping the security forces on ground in sharing real-time info leading to disruption of drug networks in the state, he added.
Special DGP STF Kuldeep Singh, while terming the drive against drugs going good, asked the district officers to keep up the momentum. He asked the officers to increase public meetings and awareness activities in their respective districts and take qualitative feedback from the public.
Special DGP Internal Security RN Dhoke apprised the DGP Punjab that this year Punjab Police has arrested 35 terrorists after busting five terror modules.
ADGP AGTF Promod Ban asked the field officers to keep watch on activities of bailed out criminals and gangsters to avert any possible criminal activities in their concerned districts.
Meanwhile, the DGP Punjab also took feedback from all the CPs/SSPs to understand practical issues being faced at ground level. He asked CPs/SSPs to hold weekly crime review meetings with all the sub-divisional DSPs and station house officers (SHOs). He also asked CPs/SSPs to make sure inspection of Police Stations formally or informally frequently.