Punjab Govt establishes dedicated police station at Kartarpur Corridor

The state government has set up a new police station at the Kartarpur Sahib corridor for the benefit of pilgrims crossing over to Pakistan to pay obeisance at Gurdwara Darbar Sahib.

Earlier, devotees had to visit the Dera Baba Nanak police station to report crimes or for other purposes. Batala Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Suhail Qasim Mir said the new police station would have a staff of 10 persons headed by an SHO.

Besides the corridor, the new police station will also have 12 villages under its jurisdiction. Earlier, these villages fell under the Dera Baba Nanak police station.

The new entity has been allocated to the court of Harpreet Singh, Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate, Batala.

The Batala police district now has 14 police stations.

SSP Qasim Mir said the facility could have been opened earlier, but some technical issues related to the Crime and Criminal Tracking Networks and Systems (CCTNS) delayed it. The project has been initiated by the Centre for creating a comprehensive and integrated tracking system for effective policing through e-governance.

The project includes a nationwide tracking system by linking nearly 14,000 police stations across the country.

In a related development, India and Pakistan have agreed to extend the validity of the agreement on the Kartarpur Corridor for another five years. This will ensure uninterrupted operation of the corridor for use by pilgrims from India to visit the shrine in Pakistan.

Earlier, a five-year agreement was signed on October 24, 2019.

Meanwhile, there is no word on when the second phase of the project will commence. Hotels, inns, residential flats for employees working at the Integrated Check Post (ICP) where immigration, security and customs procedures are undertaken were to be established in the second phase.