An IPS officer with a difference, Satyajit Mohanty is a man of kaleidoscopic personality. He is an able administrator, an intrepid investigator, a prolific writer, a sportsman and a musician all rolled into one. He has taken over as the Commissioner of Police, Bhubaneswar-Cuttack this month. An IPS of the 1988 batch, he started his career as ASP, Jeypore in 1990. Climbing the hierarchical ladder, he was posted as DIGP Northern Range, Central Range, and Western Range. Subsequently, he was posted as IGP Western Range, Fire Services & Home Guards and IGP (Finance), Director, State Police Academy. On elevation to the rank of ADGP, he functioned as CMD of Odisha Police Housing & Welfare Corporation, as ADGP, Headquarters, ADGP, law & Order and ADGP (Provisioning) at State Police Headquarters. A brilliant academician, he had his PG in Geology. later, he earned llB degree, Master of Human Rights from Pondicherry University, PG in Public Policy & Management from IIM, Bangalore and Maxwell School of Public Policy, Syracuse University, USA. Pursuit of knowledge and studies still entices him; and presently, he is also continuing on his research programme for award of PhD in the National law University, Odisha. His contributions include five publications, the latest being ‘Community Policing as a Public Policy', which has been published by the Cambridge Scholars Publishing, UK. Mohanty has hundred of irons in the fire and all of them are hot indeed! He is a guest resource person of National Police Academy, Hyderabad, Gopabandhu Academy of Administration, Bhubaneswar and Odisha Judicial Academy, Cuttack, National law University, Cuttack, National law School of India University, Bangalore. Besides, he has been nominated as an Executive Committee Member of National Police Mission for researching in the field of police reforms. Awards and accolades came showering upon him; and notable among them is the Police Medal for Meritorious Service, President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service and Antarik Surakhsa Seva Medal. He his Vice-President of Odisha Tennis Association. Possessed with a rare vision and vitality, he is committed to catapult this Police Commissionrate at a par with its counterparts in other metropolitan cities. Snatching time from his busy schedule, this nelsoeyed top cop spoke to Sugyan Choudhury at the Police Commissionerate office at Bhubaneswar.
A former DGP has said that Bhubaneswar has become the crime capital of India. As a senior police officer of repute with wide-ranging experiences to your credit, how do you contemplate to contain the rising crimes of the twin cityij
I don’t wish comment on what was told by the former DGP. But any comment should be based on figures and facts, reasons and ground realities. Statistically, the claim cannot be substantiated. The figures for all capital cities are in public domain and can be studied. Yes, if it is an issue of sense of security, I’d say there is need and scope to improve. That comes with better police visibility, public interaction, better crime detection, more orderliness on the streets, etc. We will focus on all these aspects to raise the sense of security. The crime in twin cities is well under control and we can claim that there is no organised crime or syndicate in the twin cities. Many of the gangsters are behind the bar. Narcotic and drugs, cybercrime, frauds and property offences will be our focus.
The traffic system in both the cities seems to be in jeopardy and a lot of accidents are taking place. How do you think to restore itij. Is there any plan to introduce highway patrollingij
Traffic in the old city of Cuttack does not pose danger to the public. Barely any road accident-related death is reported from Cuttack. But it’s too disorderly and chaotic. Narrow roads, lanes and by-lanes add to commuters’ woos. Mere enforcement will not be effective. Massive awareness is also required. Traffic problems of Bhubaneswar are in stark contrast to Cuttack. Here, roads are wider, grid patterned with major arteries being four or six lane roads. Over-speeding, reckless driving, lack of lane discipline, increasing vehicular population are some of the issues here. We need to have a different approach to address the traffic problems in the capital city. Enforcement, awareness campaign, automatic traffic signalling system and better road engineering may see orderliness on the Bhubaneswar roads. We are regularly checking vehicles for over-speeding on NH passing through the twin cities.
It is alleged that police in both cities are not accepting FIR in most cases. How will the people be able to overcome this situationij What about online registration of FIRij
Burking of cases (non- registration of offences) is a fact. Free registration of offences is a legal mandate and right of the victim. I’m absolutely against burking because it is illegal and highly discretionary. But let’s find out the reasons why police register cases selectively. A police station takes up as many cases as it could handle annually. It’s related to the human resource position of a police station. Unless we realistically calculate the manpower requirements of the police station and increase the strength of investigating officers, this state of affair may continue. Is online registration of FIR a solutionij Maybe, yes, but free registration may result in shoddy investigation by the already overburden staffs and that will end in more acquittal of cases. People lose faith on the system. But this is not to justify selective registration. I like debates on public domain to find out the causes and possible solution.
Your department believes in a people-friendly police system with the caption “We Care, We Dare”. But the fact remains different. Police have not been able to gain the confidence and goodwill of the general public. How do you think to achieve your ideal goalij
People-friendly policing is a philosophy based on the premises that policing is a service and people are the customers and police are the service providers. The product police deal with is concerned with security. The more the sense of security in the society, the better is the performance of the police. This philosophy is translated into reality with several strategies and tactics adopted by the organisation. We have introduced several schemes with people-friendly approach like Ama Police, Dial-100, Senior Citizen Security Cell, Mahila & Sishu Desk. But the implementations are haphazard and sketchy. These are manpower-intensive schemes. With the existing workload, police stations are unable to give the required attention to the schemes. But our focus will be people-friendly policing and we will strive to gain the confidence of the people.
There are still sex rackets and money laundering. What steps are your good office going to take to put a stop to such social evilsij
Curbing such incidents will be our focus area.
What steps are there in your agenda for ushering in an atmosphere of confidence building for the denizens of both citiesij Are you going to conduct mock drills to inspire people that the police are ready to combat any untoward situation, if it occursij
I have already spelt out our strategies on people-friendly policing. That alone is not enough. We need to change our mindset and see people as the real masters in a democracy. This is the mantra in the era of good governance. The people are to be seen as co-producers of public safety. Better police service on the ground level alone can bring this transformation. Show of force does not inspire confidence, higher standard of police service; does thatij
Please let’s know about your published works. How do you combine the rigorous duties of an IPS officer with that of your writings, research and creative endeavoursij
I believe police are a practising profession like law and medicine. One needs to keep oneself updated with the ever-expanding domain knowledge to keep one relevant to time and profession. Constant reinvention is essential to stay afloat in the system. I did my llB, Masters in Human Rights, PGPPM (IIM, Bangalore) in my service career. I’m currently doing my PhD from the National law University on a topic very relevant to police. I have authored four books on police and criminology, the latest being published by Cambridge Scholars, UK on community policing. I regularly deliver talks at different institutions and academies on professional subjects. The desire to stay relevant and my commitment to contribute to the profession is the driving force.