Criminals are going to have a tough time soon. The Centre is all set to roll out the first prison database application that would link all prisons in the country and inmates therein by March 2015.
Criminals are going to have a tough time soon. The Centre is all set to roll out the first prison database application that would link all prisons in the country and inmates therein by March 2015.
This vital database would be linked to the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID). The NATGRID, an attached office of the Union home ministry, constituted in 2011 during the UPA's tenure, was conceived to develop a cutting edge framework to enhance India's counter-terror capabilities by using at least 21 databases of individuals across the spectrum.
The 1,300 prisons across the country would be linked in a simple single application that would be used by states and the Centre to access details of any prisoner – convict or under-trial – at the click of a button. A panel has been constituted by the Union home ministry to look into software developers for the application that will collate details of not only criminals but all the crimes.
"The idea is to upload the details of the criminal and the crime he/she enters prison for and feed the data again as the criminal exits the prison. The application will include all types of crimes from petty ones to ones very heinous and would have all the biometric details and history of criminals," said a senior government official.
With Aadhaar numbers going online, biometric records of all criminals would also be matched with existing databases.
A similar idea, the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and System (CCTNS) has failed to take off due to technical glitches. The CCTNS that was launched in 2009 has 23 different applications but with over 100 vendors doing the work, coordination and implementation has suffered heavily. Centre has already dispersed over Rs. 800 crore of which close to Rs. 500 crore has been spent with little success.
The prison database system is much simpler and more inexpensive in comparison and officials said it will be much easier to implement. Presentations from existing systems in Gujarat, Karnataka and Goa prison database applications have been seen and tested. The officials have found the application used by Goa that is also being used across Maharashtra having a better interface and the union home ministry is keen to develop and fine tune it to serve its purpose.
Data of every prisoner is entered at the time of coming in and getting out of the prison. Learning from the mistakes made during development of CCTNS, the Centre has decided to get a single vendor in this case. This would ensure uniformity and overlaps.
All crimes under all laws will be covered - IPC and CrPC sections will be entered into the database making it easy to access any record. The database will be highly encrypted and allowed to accessed to only by the law enforcing and investigating agencies, said sources.
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