Mumbai CP Sanjay Pandey delights police, public with novel initiatives

Sanjay Pandey was appointed as the Mumbai CP on Feb 19. Pic/Ashish Raje

Since he took charge as Mumbai's top cop, Sanjay Pandey has been on a mission mode to make the city more disciplined. Thanks to his proactiveness, Mumbaikars now have the privilege of being connected to the police chief through WhatsApp, text messages, Facebook and Twitter.

The moves taken by Pandey so far include making taxis follow traffic discipline, removing the need for visiting police stations for passport verification, making the city noise-free, removing khataras from roadsides, and 8-hour shifts for women cops. A woman constable from a western suburb said, "He [Pandey] is like god to us…We are thankful to him as we can now spend quality hours with our family, too."

"I am overwhelmed with the kind of response I am receiving from Mumbaikars. I feel that this is our job to bring changes which is going to help citizens in their daily life and this will also help us have smooth communication with the masses. The response on social media is just tremendous, people are coming with a lot of ideas and we are working on some," Pandey told mid-day.

"If we have decided to implement certain things as per the law, then I don't think that there is going to be any problem. The only things we keep in mind is the law of the land and everything is being done as per the law, no matter how many things we are implementing," he added.

Some rumblings

But many senior IPS officers, sources said, are unhappy with the decisions being taken by Pandey. "He has been taking a number of decisions as he wants to gain name but all the decisions will come to a halt after he retires in June. These decisions will have no impact on the police machinery….," said an IPS officer requesting anonymity.