New Delhi, Jan 29 (PTI) Citizens can now search for missing persons and check police records of any vehicle and generate a no-objection certificate (NOC) for it from a countrywide database, as the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) launched these services on Wednesday.

The citizen-centric services have been launched on the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) platform and can be accessed on --"http://digitalpolicecitizenservices.gov.in"digitalpolicecitizenservices.gov.in -- portal or through a link in the existing ''Digital Police Portal'', an official statement said.

"So far, such services are being provided through the state citizen portals and it is the first time that these are being launched centrally," it said.

Intelligence Bureau Director Arvind Kumar presided over the launch ceremony.

"The two citizen services namely ''Missing Person Search'' and ''Generate Vehicle NOC'' will now be available online to citizens," NCRB Director Ram Phal Pawar said.

"Citizens can search for their missing kin against the national database of recovered unidentified found person or unidentified dead bodies from their homes. This will hugely benefit relatives of missing persons and save them from running pillar to post, as all such details including photos are available in CCTNS and will now be accessible to citizens through this portal at their convenience," he said.

"In this user friendly search, citizen may enter search criteria in the portal and the system will search it from the available national database across country and will display the result immediately with photograph and other details," he added.

On the ''Generate Vehicle NOC'' service, the NCRB director said it allows citizens to ascertain the status of a vehicle before its second hand purchase, as to whether it is suspicious or clean from police records.

"This search could be made against national database based on vehicle''s details, one can generate and download the relevant NOC, required by the RTO before the transfer of ownership," Pawar said, according to the statement.

The NCRB, a central agency under the Union Home Ministry, also signed an agreement with the US-based NGO National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children''s (NCMEC) to receive information child pornography, exploitation, etc.

The NCMEC, established by the United States Congress, has a centralized reporting system by which internet service providers across the world or intermediaries like Facebook, YouTube, etc can report about persons who circulate images of child pornography.

IB Director Arvind Kumar also inaugurated the Cyber Tipline monitoring facility in the NCRB. Cyber Tipline is centralised reporting system for the online exploitation including trafficking and sexual, of children.

"The intersection between crime and technology is more apparent today than ever before. Digital technologies and the internet have not only spurred cybercrimes but also made them much more sophisticated," Kumar said.

"It is therefore requisite for law enforcement agencies to be agile skilled in the use of latest technology and adopt innovative methods to track, investigate and combat cybercrimes," he said.

He mentioned that approximately 25,000 Cyber Tipline Reports have been received so far and shared with states and union territories out of which 15 were of very high priority.

As per details shared by states and UTs, 57 FIRs have already been registered, and investigation is in process for remaining cyber tipline reports, he added. PTI KIS TIR TIR

Disclaimer :- This story has not been edited by Outlook staff and is auto-generated from news agency feeds. Source: PTI