Bhubaneswar : Senior IPS officer Suresh Dev Dutta Singh, known for his efficiency,  has taken charge as the new police Commissioner of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, the move being hailed by the residents of the twin cities. 

The 1998 batch IPS officer was earlier posted as ADG ( Operations) and tasked with the challenging job of curbing Maoist menace. Born in Uttar Pradesh Singh is the winner of President’s police medal for his distinguished service. Always willing to help people he has told the people of twin cities that they can approach him freely. 

Singh replaces Sanjeeb Panda who had to quit under controversial circumstances following allegations of an Army captain and his fiancee being physically abused and humiliated in a city police station. A graduate of Allahabad University Singh is known for his no-nonsense approach which he would have to continue with in dealing with the varied challenges that his new job entails.

One of his biggest challenges will be schooling his own force and instilling in them a sense of discipline,  the lack of which has left to multiple problems in the past. There have also been allegations of corruption against the force, a disease which plagues the men in khaki in many parts of the state.

However, maintaining law and order in Bhubaneswar is  a bigger challenge as it is a city in transition, moving towards becoming a metropolis. Besides Bhubaneswar has a huge floating population which offers a challenge of a very different kind. The city offers a kind of anonymity to new people which makes commitment of crime easy and its detection difficult.

While organized crime is slowly taking roots both in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar new types of crimes like land grabbing are coming up. Prostitution has many different faces in the twin cities where beauty parlors and hotels have mushroomed. Raids on parlors in the past have revealed that they act as convenient front for flesh trade. Curbing such crimes will be difficult .

The other challenge for the new police Commissioner will be dealing with the problem of political patronage to law breakers. With all kinds of crimes taking place in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar now a set of criminals enjoy the patronage of political bigwigs and this can make things difficult for the police. Singh, thus, will be called upon to do a tight rope walk.