IG orders action against those blocking highways in protests

LAHORE: Punjab IGP Rao Sardar Ali has said all-out efforts will be made to protect lives and property of people, stressing effective use of all available resources to maintain law and order and root out crime across the province.

The IGP issued these instructions to all RPOs during a video link conference held at Central Police Office here on Thursday. Strict action has been directed against those who block highways in protests and cause problems for citizens, the IGP said.

He said maintaining writ of state is one of basic duties of police and strict actions should be taken against miscreants and their facilitators to thwart any attempt to disturb peace. The IGP said that in areas where crime rate is high number of patrolling personnel should be enhanced besides effective monitoring of patrolling plan.

Rao emphasised effective supervision of ongoing campaign against hardened criminals, especially A-category criminals and fugitives. He directed for strengthening police intelligence network in this regard.

He said action should be taken to eradicate organised crime, especially drugs, gambling and prostitution dens and culprits involved in such crimes should be punished severely by courts with the help of strong challans. He said field commanders should improve public service delivery and timely resolution of public issues while district police, CTD and special branch should make mutual coordination and information sharing more effective.

During the meeting, law and order situation and crime eradication were discussed. Briefing the IGP, Additional IG Operations and RPOs said police teams are working day and night to protect lives and property of people across the province. He said that the real formula for crime control is to bring the culprits to justice by improving the workout rate of cases with best investigation, therefore, a special attention should be paid on digital monitoring of investigation phases of every case registered in police stations and effective use of modern technology and modern practice should also be focused for securing evidence at the crime scene.

police office management: A special training session was organised on the working of modern Punjab Police Office Management System. Briefing the officers about the Punjab Police Office Management System, IT DIG Waqas Nazir said it was a modern paperless working system in line with modern working standards which had been designed for timely execution of official matters and convenience of citizens. He said that in the first phase, official correspondence from the Central Police Office with regions, units and districts would be done through this modern programme and identifying those responsible for delays in the conduct of government affairs was an important feature of the said system.

The officers termed the Punjab Police Office Management System a good addition to police working and said effective use of information technology would lead to further improvement in public service delivery.