LAHORE: The Gujranwala region police have recommended to Punjab IG Dr Usman Anwar to launch a paperless policy across the province by replacing the decades-old practice of writing ‘zimnis’ on papers with a prime objective of eradicating corruption and improving quality of investigation.

Declaring the use of papers to write ‘zimnis’ a leading cause of corruption in the police, it has been pointed out that the use of stationery has also increased an enormous financial burden on the exchequer.

“The one-time use of funds on the procurement of laptops would not only help standardise investigation of the cases but also eliminate corruption”, Gujranwala Regional Police Officer Dr Haidar Ashraf proposes to the IG police.

In a letter to the Central Police Office (CPO), he said replacement of the stationery with the laptops to equip the investigation officers (IOs) for a qualitative investigation was a dire need of time to bring about reforms in the Punjab police.

RPO proposes paperless work to curb corruption, cut expenses incurred on stationery

Dr Haidar Ashraf also talked about some more steps to improve the Police Station Record Management System (POLCOM) that was launched some years back, bringing revolutionary impact in the Punjab police system when it was recognised by all the other government departments country-wide.

“The POLCOM has become a success story for other departments in the province and country as well”, he said.

The Punjab police have taken several initiatives to digitalise its system and the efforts by the department are paying dividends despite odds.

However, most of the police data was not still available online, the RPO pointed out saying, “Almost all of our IOs write the zimnis on papers to compile traditional police case file”.

The IOs at times seek the help of zimni writers to complete the Missal, he said. “This practice gives rise to corruption as IOs have to pay to zimni writers”, he said.

Furthermore, overworked investigation officers cannot conduct qualitative investigations, the RPO Gujranwala said adding that the changes in zimnis and a few other such activities are worth-mentioning malpractices.

The computerisation of case file in POLCOM is duplication of work and adds burden on the staff.

In this backdrop, the RPO suggests that Punjab police can start purchasing laptops for the investigation officers.

He said the Punjab police department was spending huge money on stationery every year and making other expenditures in IT-related functions including computer hardware, software, IT equipments and plant and machinery.

The RPO suggests that the Punjab police department can consolidate these funds and utilise them for buying laptops only for IOs.

“These laptops can have the tailor-made software installed”, he said adding that for instance, a new laptop can be bought at range of Rs25,000 to Rs30,000 with cloud-based technologies and text to speech software or other software integrated with the POLCOM.

“This one-time cost will save the Punjab police department from recurring expenditure on stationery every year”, reads the letter.

It will also lead to paperless policing efforts of police command, he said adding that the Gujranwala region (all districts) for instance got Rs16,737,000 for stationery in year 2022-2023.

He further pointed out the other expenses the department was bearing annually presenting the details under various heads.

Like, he said, the department was using annually funds to the rune of Rs2,772,000 for city police officer, Gujanwala, for plant & machinery, Rs1,892,000 for DPO Sialkot, Rs2,253,000 for Gujrat DPO, Rs715,000 for Narowal DPO, Rs952,000 for Mandi Bahauddin DPO and Rs679,000 for Hafizabad DPO.

The funds under the heads of computer hardware, software, IT equipments were in addition to the above-mentioned expenses incurring every year for the Gujranwala region, taking the total financial burden to Rs10,195,000.

“This amount could have been used to purchase laptops”, the RPO Gujranawala proposed.

He suggested to the IG Police Punjab to re-allocate the consolidated amount of stationery and IT-related function for the procurement of the laptops for the use of investigation officers of the entire Gurjawanla region police.

“This new step will bring major part of force i.e IOs into computerisation stream and alleviate many chronic problems of police administration, corruption-related issue and improve perception of the police”, concludes RPO Dr Haidar Ashraf.

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2023