6 days Ago By Asseem Shaikh
Pune: The Pune city police has initiated the process to create six new posts of deputy commissioners of police (DCP), following rapid urbanisation after the merger of fringe areas, an increase in traffic volume, and a spurt in crime as well as law and order situations. Additional commissioner of police (administration) Arvind Chawaria told TOI, "We have submitted a proposal to state govt to sanction six new posts of DCPs after seven new police stations were commissioned in the city in 2024. The new posts of DCP are required to meet the growing challenges related to rapid urbanisation, an increase in crime rate, and law and order situations.
" You Can Also Check: Pune AQI | Weather in Pune | Bank Holidays in Pune | Public Holidays in Pune The city police commissionerate has 10 DCPs at present. Five of them are in charge of five zones, comprising 39 police stations across 700sqkm. One DCP each heads the traffic branch, crime branch, special branch, police headquarters, and cyber and economic offences wing.
Chawaria said a new Zone VI, headed by a DCP, would be carved out from the limits of zones IV and V for effective monitoring of issues. These are mainly related to the rise in crime, particularly in fringe areas on Pune-Ahmednagar Road and Pune-Solapur Road, after the merger of Lonikand and Loni Kalbhor police stations and the creation of seven new police stations. Plans are also being made to create two new divisions, to be headed by an assistant commissioner of police, to supervise the new police stations.
The additional commissioner of police (CP) said, "We require an independent DCP to tackle complaints related to the rise in cybercrime and supervise investigations in serious crimes. As of now, a DCP heading the economic offences wing is handling the charge of cybercrime." The traffic branch is headed by DCP-I, under the additional CP.
"Considering the increase in traffic volume, we have proposed to create an additional post of DCP-II. We are planning to bifurcate the traffic branch into traffic (east) and traffic (west), headed by two DCPs in the days to come," he said. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, while inaugurating the new police stations at the police headquarters, had stressed on the need to consider the proposal of creating a post of additional CP to meet the growing challenges related to traffic.
Chawaria said the DCP special branch (SB) was handling issues related to security, VVIP movements, law and order, police verification, and foreigners. He said there was a dire need to create an additional post of DCP-SB-II to streamline the functioning of the foreigners' registration office and to reduce the work pressure of DCP SB-I. He said a lot of administrative work was pending in the offices of DCP headquarters (HQ) and DCP administration (Admin).
If two additional posts of DCP HQ-II and DCP Admin-II were sanctioned, the process of taking decisions would be expedited, he said, adding that the proposal was awaiting the sanction of the govt..
