Sinners scoot, Praveen Sood's in charge; priority to make Bengaluru safe for women

Bengaluru: Easier traffic, women's safety and citizen-centric initiatives. Mr Praveen Sood who took charge as Bengaluru city police commissioner on Sunday, seems to have his priorities right as he goes about policing the bustling IT metropolis, which has dominated national headlines more than once for the inability of cops to curb crimes of the worst kind.

“It’s a proud moment, I would like to thank Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and the government for appointing me,” Mr Sood told the media.

Besides preventing crimes on women and kids, he would like to introduce a system like the guarantee of services to citizens (GSC) wherein they need not come to the station often to know the status of their complaints. A message will be sent to their mobiles explaining the status.

“Our control rooms will be prompted to reduce the response time,” said Mr Sood.
For passport applicants, there’s good news coming from the police chief who says passport verification will not exceed 15 days. For those who preferred to zoom than stop on seeing a traffic cop, there's good news too. They will not be stopped unnecessarily for checking documents and not unless there is a glaring offence. The only exception, of course, is drunken driving!

Sood’s priority: Make city safe for women
Preventing attack on women, citizen-centric initiatives, ensuring smooth and fast movement of traffic are among the top priorities of Praveen Sood, IPS, who took charge as Bangalore City Police Commissioner, on Sunday. Here are the excerpts of the interview with city’s top cop.

How do you feel being given the new responsibility as city Police Commissioner?
It is a proud moment for me and I would like to thank Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and the state government in appointing me. For any police official serving a city like Bengaluru is a proud moment and it is time for me to deliver for the city.

What are your top priorities as the new Commissioner?
Curbing crime will be the top priority of any new commissioner. My top agenda will be to reduce attacks on women and ensure them safety. We will take all measures to prevent attacks on women. Crime against women, senior citizens and children will be given top priority.

Tell us about other initiatives which you want to speed up?
I wish to speed up citizen centric initiatives like guarantee of services to citizens (GSC). A citizen need not come to police station often to know the status of his complaint. Under GSC, a message will be sent to his mobile number on the status of the complaint lodged by him. This will avoid them from running from pillar to post to know the status of their complaint. Further, control rooms will be prompt and will try to reduce the response time. You can expect more of these kind of citizen centric initiatives under my tenure.

The average time taken for police verification has slowed down the passport process?
All those whose passport verification process is due for long can approach their police stations on January 8 between 10 am and 1pm. From now on passport verification will not exceed 15-days, I assure that for now. As I get grip over things here, we may complete the passport verification process within 10 days also.

Traffic seems to have worsened and motorists feel unsafe over the years?
From now on cops will not stop vehicles unnecessarily under the pretext of checking documents. Only if they find any visible offence, the vehicle will be stopped, asked for necessary documents and fined. Only exception for stopping vehicles is during checking of 'drink and drive'. Also law abiding citizens should not suffer. Officials will strictly enforce rules and all citizens are requested to follow traffic rules. Safe and fast movement of traffic will be ensured.

33rd city police commissioner
N Praveen Sood, who was serving as ADGP (Administration) on, took charge on Sunday as 33rd police commissioner of Bengaluru.

He replaced N.S. Megharikh, who after his 16-month tenure as the top cop of the city has been posted as ADGP of the anti-corruption bureau. Sood joined the police force in 1986 and has held various key posts across Karnataka.
On the first day of his taking charge, Sood had a brief meeting with senior officers at the commissioner’s office.