The time taken for police verification for passports will soon be considerably reduced with the linking of CCTNS with the MEAs passport service, a senior official said on Monday.

The Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) is being linked with the passport service that will enable online verification of passport applicants, Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi said.

Under the new system, police officers will be given handheld devices that will enable them to go to an applicant’s place and quickly upload their address and other details into the network, he said.

“It will minimise contact with police and reduce time by doing away with physical movement of relevant documents, especially in cases of interstate verification,” Mehrishi told reporters here.

He also said that the government envisages to soon link various organs of criminal justice system such as police, courts, forensic laboratories, finger prints, prisons and juvenile homes with CCTNS database.

The CCTNS is a national database of crimes and criminals that was started in 2009 and currently connects 14,284 police stations out of the total 15,398 across the country.

Out of 36 states and union territories, 35 are sharing CCTNS database containing seven crore records that includes 2.5 crore FIRs.

Digital police portal

Earlier, Home Minister Rajnath Singh launched a digital police portal under the CCTNS project that will enable citizens to register FIRs online.

The portal will initially offer seven public delivery services including person and address verification of employees and tenants, permission for hosting public events and vehicle theft among other things.

It will also enable restricted access to law enforcement agencies on topics such as antecedent verification.