The newly-appointed Director-General of Police A L Banerjee and Principal Secretary (Home) Deepak Singhal conducted divisional crime review meetings and janata darbars in Moradabad, Meerut and Aligarh on Thursday.
The meetings were aimed at send out a message to the people that the state Government was taking steps to restore normalcy in the otherwise crime-ridden West Uttar Pradesh.
“We are here because the Chief Minister wants a crime-free society where all are safe,” Mr. Singhal told the people who had come to meet him with complaints ranging from lack of cooperation at the thana level, delay in sugar cane payments and poor power supply.
The venue at Meerut police lines also witnessed protests by people who raised anti- police slogans like “UP police murdabad” and “gunda gardi nahi chalegi”.
Several policemen reportedly complained of pressures from the ruling Samajwadi Party.
Mr. Singhal ordered district-level officers to travel in a single vehicle along with tehsil, block or village level officials so that decisions could be taken on the spot.
Mr. Banerjee said all complaints of sexual exploitation would be looked into by an officer equal to the rank of an SP. He added that the police department would soon launch a social media platform of its own.
The DGP wanted streamlining of the intelligence network to facilitate better exchange of crime data with neighbouring states.
Student gangraped
A Class VII student was allegedly gangraped by three persons, including one Pankaj who was reportedly known to her, in Mansoorpur area of Muzaffarnagar district on Thursday. “One person has been held and a hunt launched for the others,” said the DSP, D.K. Mittal, after visiting the crime scene.
