Coastal security scheme, CCTNS running behind schedule: CAG

The scheme for augmenting infrastructure for coastal security was lagging behind its original targets and the CCTNS, a project to modernise the police forces, missed most of the envisaged milestones for the UTs, the CAG has observed.

In its report on Union Territories (UTs), tabled in Parliament today, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India said only one out of ten planned marine operational centres had been established even though seven years had elapsed since the commencement of the scheme.

"All schemes components of the coastal security scheme which was to augment infrastructure for coastal surveillance and security were lagging behind original scheme targets," it said.

The CAG said sites for 10 planned jetties were yet to be finalised and work on upgradation of 20 coastal police stations was yet to commence.

The Ministry of Home Affairs sanctioned the coastal security scheme-II in November 2010 for augmentation of infrastructure in nine coastal states and four coastal UTs. The duration of the scheme was originally for five years i.e. upto March 2016 but was extended up to March 2020.

The financial watch dog also said the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) which was envisaged to re-engineer processes and integrate various levels of the police department with other stakeholders in a single network had missed most of the envisaged milestones.

The CCTNS project was conceptualised by the MHA in 2009 as a mission mode project to modernise the police forces. It envisaged creation of a comprehensive and integrated system by adoption of principles of e-governance and establishment of a nationwide networked infrastructure for an IT-enabled state-of-the-art tracking system.

The CAG said all scheme components of the coastal scheme phase II were lagging behind the original scheme targets, though funds were not a constraint.