The 24th Conference of the Directors General of Police Forces of the North Eastern Region and Heads of Police Central Organizations concluded Thursday June 30, after two days of deliberations on a range of security issues concerning the region. The conference was prominently attended by Directors General of Police from all the seven North Eastern States, DG Assam Rifles, representatives from West Bengal Police and Heads of Central Police Organizations in the region. The Governor of Assam presided over the valedictory function and shared his views with participants. He expressed satisfaction over the improving security scenario in the North East but reminded the participants about outstanding issues related to identity and ethnicity. He exhorted the police leadership to work with commitment and sincerity in the interest of the nation. Earlier, the conference was inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Assam on June 29. In his speech, the CM had emphasized the need for all North East States to work as ‘Team North East.’ He had underscored the need for leveraging technology to achieve the objective of smart policing.
During the conference, various aspects of insurgency afflicting parts of North East were discussed in detail. Issues related to inter-state co-ordination between police forces of North-Eastern States figured prominently in the agenda with Assam Police presenting the concept of NEPOL, a communication network for police forces in the region. The issues concerning long international borders surrounding the region and the cross border sanctuaries for insurgent groups were seen as factors sustaining current insurgency. Besides, issues related to improving quality of policing and investigation like establishment of forensic science laboratories, induction of new technology and challenges of cyber security and social media were also deliberated upon.
The conference was first conceived in 1980s as a platform for North Eastern Police Forces to come together and create a synergy in dealing with the vexed issue of insurgency in the region. The first conference was organized in 1982 at Shillong, Meghalaya. Since, then under the aegis of Intelligence Bureau the conference has emerged as one of the most important common platform to deliberate upon major security related issues at the highest level of police leadership and come up with innovative solutions to counter structural constrains in dealing with a complex set of challenges in the region. The city of Guwahati hosted the conference for a record 9th time.
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