Uttar Pradesh’s home secretary Arvind Kumar have issued strict orders to the director general of police Sulkhan Singh and all district police chiefs to lodge first information reports without any bias for religion or caste and in a fearless atmosphere.
He reminded the promise of the Yogi government during the polls and said that a promise a promise was an important point in the present government’s Lok Kalyan Sankalp-2017 and also a commitment to the public. He also spoke about the former government of Akhilesh Yadav, saying that the previous government did not lodge FIRs against the minority community.
He further added that strict actions will be taken against the police officials if FIRs are not lodged by any official, asking senior superintendents of police to open ‘FIR registration counters’.
He also told that the FIRs were either not being lodged or were being lodged after much delay. Victims have to make several rounds of police stations and senior officers but still FIRs are not lodged and they have to approach courts. Due to such attitude, people could lose confidence in law and order set-up and reputation of the government might suffers a blot,” he said.
Kumar also stressed on popularising the initiative taken by the former government of e-FIR system. Under this system an e-police station was opened whereby any person in the state could lodge a complaint online in cases of non-heinous crime and those against unidentified accused, in cases of thefts and robberies for instance. E-FIRs were to be lodged under this system and digitally signed copies of the FIRs were to be sent to the complainant online. Such a complaint can also be submitted through WhatsApp under this system provided the complainants furnish their Aadhaar number.
Uttar Pradesh has been the first state to start the process of e-FIR, being first of its kind. Arvind Kumar urged to take the complaints of people seriously or it could hamper the faith and confidence in Yogi-government. Yogi Adityanath had recently even boosted the service of UP 100, of its predecessor Akhilesh Yadav. Under this service, police will be made accountable to lodge FIRs and use ‘video evidence’ uploaded on the ‘UP 100’ portal by citizens as evidence.