GUWAHATI, June 29 - Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal today urged the heads of the police forces of all the North Eastern States to work as �Team North East� for effective synergy in dealing with common law and order issues.
Sonowal while inaugurating the two-day 24th Conference of Director Generals of Police, Inspector Generals of Police and heads of Central police organizations of North Eastern States being organized by the Intelligence Bureau held here, stressed on the concept of smart policing.
�As we all know that the insurgent groups are using technology to create trouble and therefore special stress has to be laid on the use of modern technology to counter such evil designs effectively,� the Chief Minister asserted.
�Our prime duty is to instill a sense of security among the common people and protect them from all possible threats,� he said.
Earlier, Director General of Assam Police Mukesh Sahay too put his weight behind formation of an umbrella police set up comprising forces of all the North Eastern States, besides setting up a common cyber forensic laboratory at Guwahati.
Sahay while addressing the gathering also vouched for the concept of North East Police and went on to stress on technology-driven synergy among the law enforcing agencies of the region.
Asserting that the inter-state boundary acts more as a facilitator than a deterrent for the wrongdoers, Sahay said that although militancy is on the wane, plenty of new challenges in the form of increased use of cyber weapons by insurgent groups under common platform are cropping up, which needs to be dealt effectively.
�Sanctity of the state borders has to be maintained and a systematic and technology enabled approach has to be adopted. Time has come when we must come up with idea and solutions to work seamlessly across the borders and address common problems. The task is much more challenging in cyber space as it does not respect any space,� Sahay said.
Chief Secretary VK Pipersenia also echoed similar opinion saying that the future of all the North Eastern states is closely woven and therefore there was a need for improved and coordinated effort from all the NE states.
�A concept paper to develop North East Police at the instance of the Home Ministry is being prepared,� he said, stressing on the need of real-time information sharing among the States.
Senior police officials of Intelligence Bureau of all the North Eastern States participated in the conference.
