The Narendra Modi government has approved the second phase of Inter-Operable Criminal Justice System (ICJS) project with an expenditure of Rs 3,375 crore between 2022-23 and 2025-26.
The ICJS is a national platform for enabling integration of the main IT system used for delivery of Criminal Justice in the country by five pillars -- Police (Crime and Criminal Tracking and Network Systems), e-Forensics for forensic labs, e-Courts, e-Prosecution for public prosecutors and e-Prisons for prisons.
In Phase-I of the project, individual IT systems have been implemented and stabilised. Search of records have been enabled on these systems.
Under the Phase-II, the system is being built on the principle of 'one data, one entry' whereby data is entered only once in one pillar and the same is then available in all other pillars without the need to re-enter the data in each pillar.
The project will be implemented as a Central Sector Scheme, an official statement said, adding that under the guidance of Home Minister Amit Shah, the Phase II of the ICJS project will be a step towards ensuring effective and modern policing.
The ICJS system would be made available through a dedicated and secure cloud-based infrastructure with high speed connectivity. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) will be responsible for the implementation of the project in association with the National Informatics Centre (NIC).
The project will be implemented in collaboration with the States and Union Territories.
In its report 'Police: Training, Modernisation and Reforms', the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs has recommended to the Ministry of Home Affairs to advise States and Union Territories to integrate CCTNS (Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems) data with that of courts, prisons, prosecution, forensics and fingerprints as part of the ICJS.
"This real-time integration will help in reducing duplication of work and errors, speed up the trial of cases significantly and increase the efficiency of the police," it had said in the report tabled in the Parliament during the first phase of Budget Session that ended on February 11.
Last week, the Modi government had approved the extension of the umbrella scheme of Modernisation of Police Forces (MPF) for three more fiscals till 2025-26 with a central outlay of Rs 26,275 crore.
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