PM Narendra Modi's SMART Police plan to draw inspiration from Akhilesh Yadav's initiative

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet SMART Police plan will draw inspiration from Uttar Pradesh, where the Akhilesh Yadav government has put in place Transparency in Recruitment Process (TRP) for the police.

Union home secretary LC Goyal has termed TRP a “commendable system worthy of replication by all states”. At a meeting chaired by Goyal on May 25 to discuss progress of the SMART Police plan announced by the PM in December 2014, the home secretary was all praise for TRP, minutes of the meeting accessed by ET show.

The system involves minimum human intervention in the evaluation process of possible recruits based on automated criteria, online documentation of their performance during trials, which is available to all for review for maximum transparency, and minimises discretion along with incorporating a prompt grievance system for rejected candidates.

“Police recruitment exercises have been infamous for corruption and favouritism. The system introduced by UP Police is a landmark system,” a senior home ministry official said. Goyal, during the meeting, decided to obtain a status report from the UP government on TRP to incorporate it into the SMART Police plan, according to the minutes.

The home ministry is going full steam ahead on the SMART Police plan and has held four regional workshops at Bengaluru, Bhopal, Guwahati and Chandigarh in the past two months to study over 50 best police practices followed in various states. Goyal, at the May 25 meet, shortlisted five such practices, which will be examined further for replication across India.

These include a web-based system for filing of complaints and FIRs, a mobile application for distress assistance on the lines of the HIMMAT application of the Delhi Police, a webbased court cases monitoring system on the lines of the model followed in Vijaywada, e-challans for traffic offences and Vehicle Database Access on the models of the Delhi Police, Gujarat Police and Karnataka Police, and a community policing initiative in Khanna by Punjab Police. The National Police Missions functioning under the Bureau of Police Research and Development will also be converted to ‘Smart Police Units’.