Citizens group meet CP Amitabh Gupta to discuss safety concerns
Akash Dhanurkar
Members of several NGOs from Pune recently met Pune City Police Commissioner and urged him to strengthen the security of the city, maintaining law and order.
A group of seven representatives from different citizen groups and NGO’s met Pune Police Commissioner Amitabh Gupta to share their concerns on the safety, security and law enforcement of the city.
Vaishali Patkar from Aundh Baner Balewadi Pashan Vikas Manch, Ajay Phatak from Ecological Society, Girish Deshpande from Aundh Vikas Mandal, Harshad Abhyankar from ‘Save Traffic Movement’, Pravin Bhagwat from Anand Park Residents Association, Ravindra Sinha from Pune District housing society group and Sandeep Gaikwad from Parisar met the commissioner in his office.
On speaking with Vaishali Patkar, who expressed her views on safety of senior citizens and women through Bharosa Cell and other Community Policing schemes, said that “It is important for the citizen groups to keep in touch with the Police Commissioner, as it helps us escalate about incidents happening in our area to the commissioner directly. Apart from expressing our views and concerns on women safety and other issues, we have also shared with him the problem of extreme political interference in our localities.”
The meeting also addressed issues on dysfunctional signals, traffic congestions, pollution, the mismatch between modern transportation planning and today’s traffic management.
Upon speaking with IPS Amitabh Gupta, Commissioner of Police, Pune, he said, “Look there has to be an involvement of the citizens in our work. We are working for the public and hence their feedback is necessary. The meeting addressed a lot of issues and we considered too many suggestions that can lead to the path of development. However, since I am newly appointed, it may take me some time to know the entire mechanism of my department and the population.”
Sandeep Gaikwad from Parisar NGO said, “The only agenda of this meeting was to help the newly appointed commissioner of the city. NGO’s know every corner of the society and have worked there, so, the Pune Police wanted help from these citizens’ group to know the area issues and locality. “
