‘Hyderabad will be made as safe as Singapore’

Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday saluted the state’s police force for its efforts in ensuring peace in the state, curbing the Maoist insurgency and bringing down the crime rate.

Addressing a first-of-its-kind gathering of policemen — from the level of sub-inspectors to director-general of police — KCR said whenever he visited New Delhi every body including the prime minister and home minister praised the performance of the state’s police and said there was no match to Telangana police in the country.

The daylong conference at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre was attended by nearly 2,000 officers from across the state, who enjoyed direct interaction with the chief minister.

“For women Hyderabad will be made as safe as Singapore where women move around even at midnight without fear. With this spirit we have formed “She Teams” to curb eve teasing and it has earned laurels from all,” KCR said.

Lavishing more praise the CM said, in the last elections of the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, his party had sought the votes from the people on the basis of the performance of the police.

“People gave us 99 seats in the corporation,” he said.

KCR’s direct interaction with the lower level police officials is the first of its kind in the entire country.

Chief ministers traditionally hold such meetings only with the districts superintendents and higher ranking officials.

KCR said he called the gathering to better understand the challenges faced by police at the grass roots level and wanted feedback from the force on how to further strengthen the law and order machinery, and improve conditions for officers.

“When Telangana state was being formed many had opposed it saying the Maoists will become stronger in the smaller state. But our police had disproved all those theories,” KCR said praising the role of the police in achieving the dream of a separate Telangana state.

Listing the measures taken by his government to modernise the police force and increase its resources and infrastructure, the chief minister said department would have the full cooperation of the government.

“We will initiate measures to ensure that women in the force will not face any difficulties or problems,” he said.

To increase the confidence of the people in the force, the state government had introduced the concept of “friendly police”, KCR said.

The chief minister, who soon after coming to power had provided a fleet of brand new vehicles to the force in the state, announced allocation of another Rs5 billion (Dh284 million) to purchase more new vehicles.

“This will further enhance the performance of the force,” he said.

The state has 806 police stations, 716 circles, 162 sub divisions and nine commissionerates.

The chief minister assured members of the force that those who qualify for promotion will not be made to wait for a single day.

“We will have a system under which those qualify will be promoted immediately. Similarly those who retire will not have to run from pillar to post for their benefits. On the day of the retirement the policeman will be given a farewell with flowers and a shawl and will be dropped at home in an official vehicle”, he said.

Director-General of Police Anurag Sharma, who was also present at the interaction, expressed confidence that the conference will yield good results and improve the functioning of the police force in the state. He thanked the Chief Minister for the unique initiative.