‘Proactive policing can curb crime’

Hyderabad: Calm, composed and friendly on the outside Mahesh Bhagwat, Commissioner of Police for Rachakonda is equally disciplined and strict with his responsibilities in law-enforcement. He was the only India to be awarded ‘The Hero Award 2017’ by the US delegation this year for his contribution towards fighting the cause of human trafficking and child labour in the country.

Over the past one and a half years, the Commissioner has been on a mission to curb crime rate not only in the East zone but throughout the city. Rachakonda comprises of 42 lakh people, of which partly are rural. People from Rangareddy, Medchal, districts of Yadadgiri and Bhongir constitute this populace in the area, which is up to 5,091 sqkm making it one of the biggest commissionerates in the country.

“Annually, we register 20,000 crimes related to property offences, bodily crimes, land related issues and cheating cases. We introduced measures to track the cases such as registering the crimes online. We started using Papilon technology (finger prints) which helps us to detect criminals and then take suitable action against them,” shares the officer on his measures to ensure crime-free zone.

His policy seems clear: Involve people in ensuring crime-free areas. Elaborating on the same, he adds, “We are encouraging people in the district to use CCTVs in their respective areas, and we connect those cameras in our control room, which help us track what is happening in different areas of the commissionerate. I believe that proactive and active policing is more important reactive policing to curb crime in city.”

The Commissionerate, though in a budding stage, has had its share of achievements. Says Bhagwat, “Till date we sealed 75 apartments, lodges and guest houses under Immoral Traffic Prevention Act of 1986, 133 criminal procedure code. People were renting out their space at home without proper ID. The sealing of these places created a lot of deterrence among the people, and they have now been following proper measures to ensure safety at their place.”

His efforts in fighting human trafficking have been the most talked about recently. Sharing details of the same, the Commissioner says, “Till now we rescued 150 women from shackles of human trafficking and 800 children from hazardous industries. We counselled their parents not to send their children to such places.”

“Since most of the children were from Orissa and expressed desire to continue their studies, we got three Oriya medium schools constructed in the Commissionerate with the help of District collector and got teachers from Orrisa who can teach the children,” he adds.

“We also established two family counselling centres in our Commissionerate. Till date we received 550 petitions from people who wanted to divorce their partners. But through our counselling we have been able to reconcile 250 cases, over last one and half years, which I think is a good,” concludes the Commissioner on a modest note.