DGPs' meet discusses Naxal violence, counter-terror action; PM Modi sits through entire session

Lucknow: Violence perpetrated by the Maoists, action against terror modules and cyber crime were some of the issues that figured prominently at the conference of DGPs here on Saturday attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, officials said. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, DGPs of all states and union territories, DGs of central police organisations and 350 other senior police officers attended the second day of the three-day conference. The prime minister sat through the deliberations in the entire session on Saturday, an official said. The conference discussed a wide range of issues, including cyber crime, counter-terrorism challenges, left wing extremism and emerging trends in narcotics trafficking, the official said. Since 2014, the prime minister has taken a keen interest in the conference of the director generals of police (DGPs). Unlike the symbolic presence earlier, he makes it a point to attend all sessions of the conference and encourages free and informal discussions that provide an opportunity to top police officials to directly brief the prime minister on key policing and internal security issues affecting the country, another official said. The conference, organised by the Intelligence Bureau, is being held in hybrid format. The DGPs of states and other police organisations attended the conference physically here, while the remaining invitees participated virtually from 37 different locations across the country. As envisioned by the prime minister, since 2014, the annual conferences, which used to be customarily organised in Delhi, have been organised outside Delhi with an exception of the year 2020 when the conference was held virtually. The conference has been organised in Guwahati in 2014, Dhordo, Rann of Kutch in 2015, National Police Academy, Hyderabad in 2016, BSF Academy, Tekanpur (Madhya Pradesh) in 2017, Kevadiya (Gujarat) in 2018 and IISER, Pune in 2019. There has been considerable changes in the format, topics covered, deliverables at the meet since 2014. The number of business sessions and topics have increased significantly with focus on improving policing in service of people. Before 2014, deliberations largely focused on national security matters only. Since 2014, these conferences have a twin focus of national security as well as core policing issues, including prevention and detection of crime, community policing, law and order, improving police-image, etc., a home ministry official said. Earlier, the conference was Delhi-centric with officers coming together only for the conference. Residing in the same premises over a period of 2-3 days has served to build heightened sense of unity amongst officers of all cadres and organisations since 2014. Direct interaction of top brass of police with the head of government has resulted in convergence of views on crucial challenges faced by the country and emergence of doable recommendations, the official said. In the past few years, the topics are selected after detailed discussions with the highest echelons of the police service. Once selected, several interactions on presentations are held before committees of DGs in order to encourage participation and to incorporate ideas from the field and from younger officers. As a result, all presentations are now broad-based, content-intensive and carry a set of cogent, actionable recommendations. Since 2015, detailed follow-up of recommendations of past conferences is the norm and is the topic of the first business session, attended by the prime minister and the home minister. Recommendations are tracked closely by the conference secretariat, led by the Intelligence Bureau, with the help of nodal officers of the states. Decisions made in the past few conferences led to significant policy changes leading to improvement of policing in the country, including setting higher standards for effective policing in rural and urban areas, and improved methods of modern policing, based on smart parameters.