Gurugram’s new Police Commissioner K.K. Rao said on Thursday that prevention and detection of crime will remain his top priority, besides traffic management.
Police visibility
Interacting with journalists a day after he took charge, Mr. Rao said prevention and detection of crime was the primary responsibility of the police. He said police visibility will also be increased in the weeks to come to create a sense of security among the common man.
Conceding that traffic management in the city was an added responsibility of the police, Mr. Rao said the force could do precious little without cooperation from the citizens.
Traffic hazards
“Service lanes in the city have been converted into parking lots. Personal vehicles and cabs are left parked on service lanes causing inconvenience to the common man,” said the 1996-batch IPS officer.
He also pointed out how hundreds of autorickshaws parked at important intersections in the city and at metro stations were traffic hazards. Mr. Rao, who was the Superintendent of Police in 14 districts of Haryana, earlier promised to deal with this strictly after a stern warning.
Emphasising quick disposal of cases, Mr. Rao said Station House Officers were told in a meeting to reduce backlog of cases to at least 20%.
He argued that the police could spare time to work for the public only when the backlog was less.
The 48-year-old has been part of major law and order situations, such as the Jat reservation agitation, as Special Officer and also involved in several encounters.
Verification procedure
Seeking cooperation from the common man to fight crime in the city, Mr. Rao urged everyone to complete the verification of their tenants and domestic workers. Stating that verification acted as deterrent against the crime, he said it was found that the procedure was not done in most cases. He added that the police will consider holding special camps for verification of tenants and domestic workers in their respective police stations areas.
Namaz issue
He said issues such as response time to distress calls made to the police control room and behaviour of the police personnel will also be looked into. To a question on the controversy over offering of namaz in the open, Mr. Rao said the matter was under observation.
