LAHORE (NNI): The automation of various functions of Punjab Police through technological solutions has become success story with the dedicated hard work by the police officials to bring genuine reforms in the centuries old system to facilitate the citizens.
Dr. Umar Saif Chairman Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) said while addressing the launch ceremony of the pilot project, “Digital Challan” an application developed by the PITB for Lahore Traffic Police here on Friday.
He said that this application will be used by 2200 authorized challan officers who perform their duties in three shifts in the 34 traffic sectors of Lahore. The collaboration experience with the Punjab Police over a period of three and a half years was credible due to the ownership of police as to bring about genuine reforms one needed to take the risk and to show the leadership, he added.
Dr. Saif further added that the automation of Punjab police initiated with the complaint lodge management system was now successfully being practiced across the Punjab police in 713 police stations while whole Human Resource record of the Punjab police has also been digitized.
Currently 4500 manual challans were being accounted every day and with the induction of Digital Challan application, the system would ensure accountability and transparency, he said.
The Chairman PITB informed that the successful automated projects of the Punjab police have attracted the other provinces and PITB has assisted Khyber Pakhtoon Khwa and Baluchistan police in this regard while the Sindh police has also shown keen interest in our projects and the Sindh IG would soon visit to sign an agreement for the replica of our applications.
Addressing the ceremony, the Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Lahore Captain ® Muhammad Amin Wains lauded the support extended by Dr. Umar Saif and his team and said that traffic was an important component of police service by ensuring the smooth, safe and comfortable movement of the people while I T initiatives were imperative and only way forward to improve the operational capacity. There was a need to visit every doorstep and to hold seminars at Police Stations to create awareness among the citizens to respect the law of the land, which was an obligation on all of us, he added. He urged upon the wardens that challan should be the last resort after creating awareness and they must show maximum tolerance and respect to the commuters instead of arguing or scuffle.
Earlier, Rai Ijaz Ahmad Chief Traffic Officer (CTO) elucidated the salient feature of the digital challan application and said that in the history of traffic police it was an important opportunity to shift from manual challans to digital ones, which was the first phase and would provide database of the nature of the traffic violation, violator and the vehicle to make available the violation history with one click. After monitoring the successful operation of this pilot project it would be extended to the other cities of the Punjab. In the second phase eChallan application would be used, which would have feature of ePayment while in the third phase with the help of Cameras installed cChallan would be introduced to deduct points, he added.
Rai Ijaz said that 1600,000 challans were pending in the courts as the violators didn’t turn up to get their CNIC, driving license or registration book and manipulate to get the same duplicate of the respective departments, which would not be possible now. He informed that a control room has been established to monitor 250 CCTV live footage installed at 40 points of the city to improve the security environment while all sectors have been equipped with biometric devices, computers, printers and other allied equipment. The PITB’s “RAASTA” application launched three months back has shown unprecedented acceptance by the citizens, he added.
