Our Correspondent
New Delhi:
A Parliamentary committee on Home Affairs has hailed Meghalaya for setting up 10 cyber cells to fight cyber criminals.
Talking to The Meghalayan in an exclusive interview, Sujeet Kumar, a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, said that other states should get encouragement from Meghalaya and others with a good number of cyber cells to fight the present threat of cyber criminals.
“States like Meghalaya, Odisha, Maharashtra have a good number of cyber cells and these states should be an inspiration for others to set up cyber cells,” said Kumar, a BJD MP in the Rajya Sabha, on Saturday.
Referring to the 237th report of the committee tabled in Parliament recently, Kumar said that setting up cyber cells is the need of the hour.
“There are many types of cyber crimes that keep happening now and then. Dedicated cyber cells should be set up to fight the menace,” said Kumar.
In fact, the committee headed by Congress MP in the Rajya Sabha, Anand Sharma, expressed its deep concerns over the rising rate of cyber crimes in the country.
“As per the information provided to the Committee, it is seen that some of the States like Punjab, Rajasthan, Goa, Assam do not have a single cyber crime cell, while in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh, only one/two cyber crime cells have been set up. It observes that each day, cyber-criminals are using newer methods and new modus-operandi to commit cyber crimes. Therefore, it is important for the police to stay updated on new modus-operandi and technology trends adopted by criminals,” the committee said in its report.
The Committee has recommended that MHA may advise states to set up cyber cells in all the districts. The states should map the cyber crime hotspots which will help in quick detection of crimes and taking proactive measures to prevent these.
It has also recommended upgrading the existing cyber cells by setting up dark web monitoring cells and social media monitoring cells to tackle different types of cyber crimes.
To strengthen the investigation of inter-state crimes, the Committee recommended that MHA may advise states/UTs that when investigating officers visit outside their jurisdictional state for investigation of a cyber crime, they should be provided with optimum support from the law enforcement agencies of other states and UTs, as required.
As per the statistics provided in the report, Bihar has the maximum number of cyber cells (75) followed by Maharashtra 47 and Odisha 34.