Online FIRs soon, says Chidambaram

There would soon be no need to go to a police station to file a first information report (FIR) with online registration available by the end of the year or early next year, home minister P Chidambaram said today.

There would soon be no need to go to a police station to file a first information report (FIR) with online registration available by the end of the year or early next year, home minister P Chidambaram said on Wednesday.

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Chidambaram said in the Rajya Sabha that people had to face problems while lodging FIRs. But it would very soon be possible to register it through online facilities after the server and network was established.

Replying to a question on police reforms, Chidambaram told the house that the central government was against the selection of a director general of police (DGP) of a state by the Union Public Service Commission as directed by the Supreme Court in 2006.

The selection, he said, should be left to the states from among three-four senior officers. The central and state governments were on the same page on the issue.

The central government, he said, was also against giving a two-year fixed tenure to a DGP irrespective of retirement age as cadre management would become very difficult, he said.

States, too, had expressed difficulty in following the direction, said Chidambaram.

The Supreme Court had also directed the constitution of a State Security Commission, separating investigating police from law and order police, setting up of a Police Establishment Board at the state level to decide transfers, postings and promotions of officers, and having Police Complaints Authorities at state and district levels to go into complaints against police officers.