The annual crime report compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) for 2017 will be published soon as requisite data from all States has been received, a senior official said.
The publication of “Crime in India” for 2018 will have to wait a little longer as the NCRB plans to come out with the 2017 report first, the official said.
The Opposition parties have accused the government of withholding the report. On June 24, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said in the Rajya Sabha that the government had initiated a tradition that “if the findings of the report are against it, it will not be tabled at all”.
“A couple of States have not given the required data. We cannot publish the report without getting information from all the 29 States and seven Union Territories. If the States don’t comply, we will publish the report without their crime data,” the official said.
Another official said to tide over dependence on States to send information, they were developing software on the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) to cull out the data automatically and publish the report. There are 15,816 police stations across the country and the CCTNS connects almost 15,000 of them on a national platform. It has a database of all crimes, photographs of criminals and missing children among other things. The report is used by the State and the Central governments for framing various policies and initiatives and also by various other stakeholders for research purposes.
On July 9, Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi said on Twitter, “NCRB’s job is to maintain crime records & produce reports. Since 2016, it hasn’t produced its two main annual reports ‘Crime in India’ & ‘Prison Statistics India’. Why is a record-keeping body interested in snooping on citizens? And why is it not doing its job?”
He was referring to the automated facial recognition software (AFRS) planned by the NCRB to solve criminal cases.
On July 9, Villupuram MP D. Ravikumar asked in the Lok Sabha whether the NCRB had submitted its 2017 report. In a written reply, Minister of State for Home G. Kishan Reddy said the report had not been finalised.
“To ensure that published data suits the requirements of various stakeholders, the NCRB has comprehensively revised the proforma for collecting crime statistics. It has trained personnel of States and Union Territories on the new formats. The data in the revised proforma from all States and Union Territories has not been received,” Mr. Reddy said. In 2017-18, the NCRB in consultation with States and other stakeholders had revised the forms to add new crime categories. Earlier, as many as 35% crimes were in the “unclassified” category.
