NEW DELHI: The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has developed and operationalised an e-Forensics IT platform connected with 117 forensic science laboratories, both central and state, officials said on Monday. Officials said that in order to further strengthen ‘DNA Analysis and Cyber Forensic Capacities’ in State Forensic Science Laboratories (State FSLs), “all projects, 30 in total, which were received from the state governments and the Union Territory administrations, have been given Rs 128.28 crore so far out of the total sum approved Rs 245.29 crore.” As part of its effort to further expedite forensic analysis and reduce backlogs in laboratories, the MHA has set up three new Central Forensic Sciences Laboratories (CFSLs) at Bhopal, Guwahati and Pune and upgraded the existing CFSL at Kolkata with latest state-of-art machinery and equipment.The Centre has also approved setting up of six additional NCFLs in the country at the CFSLs Chandigarh, Delhi, Kolkata, Kamruup, Bhopal, and Pune with a total outlay of Rs 126.84 crore.A senior official said, “So far 32,524 Investigating Officers, Prosecutors and Medical Officers have been trained to deal with forensic evidence. The MHA has also distributed 18,020 ‘Sexual Assault Evidence Collection Kits’ to the States and the UTs as part of this training.”The official said that besides the initial campuses of the national Forensic Science University (NFSU) in Gandhinagar (Gujarat) and Delhi, “an in-principle approval has been provided for setting up of five additional off-campuses of the NFSU in Goa, Agartala (Tripura), Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), Dharwad (Karnataka), and Guwahati (Assam).”However, these additional campuses “are currently operational from transit campuses till the construction of permanent campuses” the official said, adding that the Union Cabinet earlier this year also approved setting up of ‘National Forensic Infrastructure Enhancement Scheme’, which inter-alia includes the component for nine additional campuses of the NFSU in the country with a total financial outlay of Rs 1,309.13 crore from financial year 2024-2025 to 2028-2029.Meanwhile, to ensure quality and standardisation in forensic examination, the MHA’s Directorate of Forensic Science Services has issued a set of guidelines including ‘Quality Manuals for accreditation of laboratories as per NABL standards (ISO 17025)’ and ‘Working Procedure Manuals in nine disciplines of Forensic Sciences’.The guidelines also specify norms for collection, preservation and transportation of forensic evidence in sexual assault cases for Investigation Officers (IOs) and Medical Officers (MOs).
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