Dawki PCP functioning without any training on immigration matters

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaNovember 2, 2020

Strange but true, the officer and staffs deployed at the Police Check Post located in Dawki under Dawki PS, West Jaintia Hills District are yet to be imparted any training in immigration matters related to proper handling of the equipments such as Passport Reading Machine (PRM), Biometric machine and Webcam including updating of passenger records in the IVFRT database system.

This is as per disclosure in the Annual Activity and Action (AAA) Report of West Jaintia Hills, District Executive Force published in the year 2019 under the leadership of the then SP Lakordor Syiem.

The Dawki Police Check Post (PCP) is located at Tamabil-Dawki and is about 50 meters from the International India-Bangladesh border. The PCP was established since the year 1953 and till date is operating from the Land Customs Station building. It is regarded as one of the oldest Land ICPs in the country.

During the initial period (1953) the PCP was mostly used by Indian and Pakistani nationals for entering and exiting Bangladesh (then East Pakistan). As per the 1953-54 passenger data maintained at the PCP, the average flow of passengers (incoming and outgoing) is as listed above. Of late the flow of passengers has seen a surge especially in the last 2-3 years and is likely to increase further as the tourism sector in Meghalaya has also start booming up. At present the average flow of incoming and outgoing passengers is about 200-300 per day during off seasons and around 500-600 passengers during peak seasons.

The Sanctioned Strength of the PCP is one Sub Inspector, one head constable and eight UB Constable

The PCP since its inception serves as one of the important Land Immigration Check Post that caters to international traffic. The primary function of the PCP is to regulate the entry (arrival), stay and exit (departure) of foreign nationals in the country. The PCP also caters to matters relating to repatriation and deportation of those nationals who have illegally entered/overstayed in the country or otherwise.

The PCP till date maintains the Arrival/Departure details of passengers manually in different registers viz. 1. Outgoing Register of Bangladesh nationals, 2 Arrival/Departure of Bangladesh nationals, 3 Diplomatic/Official registers of Bangladesh nationals, 4 Indian Arrival/Departure register, 5 Incoming register of Indian nationals, 6 Diplomatic/Official register of Indian nationals, 7 Arrival/Departure Register of Nepal nationals, 8 Outgoing register of Nepal nationals, 9 Arrival/Departure Register of foreign nationals, 10. Outgoing register of foreign nationals, 11 Arrival/Departure of Bhutan nationals and 12 Diplomatic/Official register of foreign nationals.

All registers are maintained manually due to poor network connectivity and erratic power supply at the PCP.

Besides, the equipment’s like Passport Reading Machine (PRM), Biometric machine and Webcam etc provided to the PCP are yet to be put to use due to the above encumbrances.