LAHORE: Caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi has approved Rs2bn for Special Initiative Police Stations (SIPS) project for upgrade of all 737 police stations of the province.

The Punjab Police had launched the SIPS project in 2020 to provide the citizens with quick relief, change the ‘Thana culture’ and strengthen the trust between the public and police.

The project includes building model police stations divided into two parts with effective use of modern technology. On the front, the police stations will have counters with modern technology, friendly environment and waiting rooms where services to the citizens through a token system would be provided.

This part will have a DRC/committee room, SHO room and front desks. The rooms for operations officers, moharars, investigating officers and lock-ups would be at the back of police stations.

On Sunday, Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr Usman Anwar chaired a meeting about the SIPS at the Central Police Office. All Regional Police Officers (RPOs), City Police Officers (CPOs) and District Police Officers (DPOs) and traffic police officers of the province attended the meeting via video link.

SIPS project aims at quick relief, complaints monitoring, change in Thana culture

Senior police officers, including AIG Admin Amara Athar and Rana Shoaib Mahmood were also present.

The IGP announced that all police stations would be upgraded within the year. He directed the RPOs, CPOs and DPOs to personally supervise the upgrade process and ensure quality.

Dr Anwar stated that the survey and tenders for the special initiative police stations was complete. He also mentioned that all police service centres, counters, police lines, training schools and colleges are being equipped with modern facilities. He said new projects, including safe cities, private camera mapping and Pasban, had been launched to enhance city safety and a comprehensive strategy was being developed in consultation with stakeholders for the peaceful and safe conduct of the general election.

The IGP also reviewed the ongoing steps to transfer all the police stations across Punjab to SIPS protocol and emphasized the need to accelerate anti-crime and community policing measures in all districts.

AIG admin Amara Athar told Dawn around Rs2m were sanctioned for every police station for upgrade under the SIPS project. She said front desks were established in more than 100 police stations in different districts of the province and all the remaining police stations would also be upgraded.

She claimed that a user-friendly environment would be provided to the citizens and software was developed to give a timeline to the citizens about their complaint.

Ms Athar said a complaint management system was also launched to address the grievances of the public about police. She said a record of the reason for every person coming to a police station would be maintained and an e-tag for every complaint would be issued and every emergency helpline call would also be tagged in the system.

She said the timelines for disposal of complaints would be followed and the name and contact number of the inquiry officer would be provided to each complainant.

Amara Athar said timeline of registration of case would be ensured and a message would be sent to the complainant about registration of the FIR with legal section of the offence and name of the investigating officer.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2023