Telangana has modern, citizen-friendly police, says outgoing DGP

Hyderabad, Dec 31 (IANS) The outgoing Director General of Police M. Mahendar Reddy on Saturday, said that Telangana police has transformed into a modern, citizen friendly and effective service delivery organisation.

The state police bid farewell to Mahendar Reddy, who retired from service upon superannuation.

A grand farewell parade was held at RBVRR Telangana State Police Academy. Personnel from different wings of the police participated in the parade.

Mahendar Reddy, who served as the head of the police force for five years and introduced many initiatives, took the salute and reviewed the march past.

Anjani Kumar, who has been appointed as in-charge DGP, along with senior police officials and retired IPS officers were present on the ocassion.

“I would like to thank and commend each and every member of Telangana State Police for their untiring efforts and dedicated contribution in transforming Telangana Police into a modern, citizen friendly, responsive, process driven, tech savvy organisation setting benchmarking standards,” said Reddy, who served in the police force in various capacities for 36 years.

He recalled that there were apprehensions at the time of bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh that the smaller state may see recurrence of Maoist problems, terrorist activity, communal violence and major law and order issues.

He said that after the formation of the state, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao gave top priority to the police department and provided all resources and support to make sure that the law enforcement in the state improved at par with the developed countries upholding dignity of all citizens.

The outgoing DGP said that since the state has primary responsibility to give a sense of safety and security to people round the clock, special efforts were made to improve the emergency response management system.

Reddy added that in the last eight years, the state government sanctioned recruitment of 30,000 personnel and so far, 27,000 personnel were recruited.

Mahendar Reddy, who introduced many technological initiatives, urged all officers and personnel to adopt technology in this digital world.

“Adopt technology or perish. In this digital age, police should be a technology-based performance organisation. We should continuously learn and adopt technology. Law breakers first use technology. We should be a step ahead of them,” he said.

Referring to new technologies like artificial intelligence, and big data analytics, he pointed out that the state government acted with a vision to set up a technology fusion centre at the recently opened integrated command and control centre.

The outgoing police chief said that this would help the police integrate CCTVs cameras across the state and handle any law and order or disaster situation. The centre also facilitates coordination with all government departments.