Paul bids goodbye to force, ready to join UPSC

Paul, who joins the Union Public Service Commission as a member, would hand over charge to his deputy, Yudhbir Singh Dadwal, reports Tushar Srivastava.

The tenure of KK Paul, the longest serving police commissioner of Delhi, comes to an end of Thursday. Paul, who joins the Union Public Service Commission as a member, would hand over charge to his deputy, Yudhbir Singh Dadwal, who is at present posted as special commissioner (administration) in Delhi Police.

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Paul had taken charge on January 31, 2004. He would take up the new assignment on Thursday itself. As he gets set to say goodbye to Delhi Police after over 30 years in the force, Paul said, "The promises that I made, when I took charge as police commissioner, have been achieved. We worked very hard during this time."

Citizens first, Paul said, was the motto of Delhi Police under him and there was a "constant effort to attitudinal change indicating a service organisation."

There is a long list of “achievements” made by Delhi Police in the last three-and-a-half-years. The force, Paul said, got a new direction during this time. A lot of modernisation was undertaken and welfare activities initiated.

"Heinous cases were worked out, there was excellent investigation, the conviction rate improved, we faced numerous challenges but our performance was good," he said. The best catches according to him, was the arrest of Sher Singh Rana, the prime accused in the Phoolan Devi murder case, the arrest of Fazal-ur-Rehman, Jagtar Singh Hawara and Sansar Chand.

"The force grew, its now a 64,000-strong unit. A grievance redressal system was put in place and it was ensured action was taken on any complaint by any person from the public. A lot of modernisation work was undertaken. Initially, a system of making complaints through fax was started and soon anyone could send their complaints through e-mail," he said.

All police stations were connected through internet, new police buildings came up, ISO standardisation was given, cyber labs were set-up. The Delhi Police also bought out a book on its history and heritage. "We moved with the times or we could say ahead of times," Paul said.