Panchkula CP Dr. Hanif Qureshi is strengthening Panchkula Police towards positive policing

New Delhi, August 1

Although known as a quiet city and a lesser known hill station itself, Panchkula is the emerging satellite city of Haryana that is the base of Haryana Government and Haryana Police. The city also hosts Chandi Mandir Cantonment, the headquarters of Western Command of the Indian Army. 

Panchkula, one of the power hubs of Haryana Government and Panchkula is one of the key Commissionerates of Haryana Police.

In a special interview with BW PoliceWorld, CP Panchkula, Dr. Hanif Qureshi speaks about positive policing, his initiatives for citizens and key changes he envisages to make Panchkula Police excel in Haryana emphasizing on positive policing in Panchkula.

An officer of the 1996 batch of Haryana, Dr. Hanif Qureshi took the charge of Panchkula Commissionerate in April this year and since then he has brought in some key improvisation in Panchkula Police.

1)What are the initiatives and measures you have envisaged for better policing in Panchkula?

As the first step to better policing, we initiated changes in the law and order operations for closer and focused surveillance. We formed 20 Quick Response Teams (QRT) on 20 dedicated motorbikes that work for crime as well as traffic. Panchkula being a satellite city that is a centre point between Chandigarh, Kalka and Shimla, we have heavy traffic and several incidents of crime. These QRTs have been permanently stationed at designated spots. This has also resulted in active policing as well as closer watch on movements across the city.

We also see a high population of tourists who pass by the city to visit Shimla and Chandigarh or those who come to Panchkula for stays. We have ensured the QRTs work 24/7 to ensure every area of the city is covered and close surveillance aides the police control room personnel too who otherwise patrol in the city for overall security.

For the citizens, we have also started a ‘Know Your Case’ facility where they can track the progress of their complaints/ cases weekly and monthly. We have also extensively taken up measures for safety of women and children and teaching them on sexual harassment measures, Good Touch & Bad Touch training to both girls and boys in school and regular sessions with citizens for citizen centric policing on educating them on various laws, women oriented programmes and more.

We have also started a cyber-police station in Panchkula in July for dedicatedly working on cybercrime.

2)You recently introduced a power packed operation, ‘Operation Akraman’. Tell us more about it.

‘Operation Akraman’ is a special operation and an impromptu and or surprise operation of carrying out simultaneous raids at multiple targets. Under this, we have formed raiding parties that jointly crackdown on the target without leaving a scope for the accused to escape. As our first operation, we formed 14 raiding parties on July 18 and raided 60 spots. We arrested 37 persons including four proclaimed offenders and registered 19 FIRs including two NDPS Act where Heroine was seized while other cases were for theft, snatching, street crimes and violation of excise rules cases.

The idea to carry out simultaneous raids is to catch anti social elements by surprise. All ACPs and SHOs remain on alert as this operation can be carried out anytime once a month on a surprise basis. The citizens also get alerted and we are able to build trust among them. This exercise of Operation Akraman will be carried out once a month on a regular basis.

3)What are the new initiatives that you have started for Panchkula Police after you took over?

After I took over, my focus was to first improvise policing in the city. The police stations work at a usual pace with FIRs getting registered, investigations being carried out and later culminating into submission of a chargesheet. However, during the same process, sometimes the police lose track of the case and citizens keep knocking on the door for resolution. The pendency increases and the trust of police-public partnership comes under question.

I therefore started scrutiny of FIRs by assistant commissioners of police (ACP). Under this, every ACP who has police stations under his charge has to scrutinize one FIR every day, track the progress and take actions accordingly. The investigation officer of the said case is an ASI/SI or SHO. While scrutinizing the FIR, the ACP will spend an hour with the IO and record their observations on the same and suggest/ideate on the resolution for the same. This will make the ACPs get an active role in the cases being recorded under their jurisdiction.

4)What are the measures you have started for controlling the drug cartels and excise violation cases in Panchkula?

Panchkula has a large presence of pubs and bars and we often see a high footfall of visitors there. We usually get complaints of loud music and fights outside pubs. We recently had a case where a fight outside the pub escalated to the level of firing at each other. In some cases, illegal weapons are also used in such brawls. We have hence formed teams that will work with the Excise Department to regularize the timings and workings of the pubs. Haryana Government has 24/7 operational facility but each bar and pub has permission granted by the Excise Department differently with deadlines.

In connection with narcotics cases that are high in areas of Panchkula and Kalka, we have started an important measure. The drugs that are seized after the raids and lie at police station storage facilities will be immediately destroyed after seeking the court order and making an inventory memo. On one side we are cracking down on the cartels and on the other we are also lot leaving a chance for further misuse of the contraband.

We have initiated measures to seize property of known drug dealers. Orders have been obtained from competent authority regarding forfeiture of property obtained from profits made from drug trade of two NDPS Act convicts in this year.

In addition to that, we have started a special What’s App number 7087081100 for the citizens to report on cases related to illegal buying and selling of drugs with their identities hidden and the same can be used for seeking help in de addiction and drugs related health issues.

5) Haryana has a presence of organized crime and gangs working in syndicate. How is Panchkula Police dealing with the gangs and gangism in the area?

There are infamous gangs that operate in some parts of Haryana which have been mostly neutralized by Haryana STF and police from other states and UT. Those gangs are into organized crimes of extortion, murders, contract killings, drugs and arms. Panchkula is largely free from such organised gangs, however, there are some illegal mining gangs and we are zeroing in on them. The crime branch in Panchkula has been trained to deal with illegal mining cases and we are in the process of breaking the bone of the mining syndicates in and around Panchkula. The recent case of the death of DSP Surender Singh of Nuh has further strengthened our motive to break down the illegal mining works in Haryana.

6)What are the welfare and health initiatives you have started for the police personnel in Panchkula?

There are some initiatives that Haryana Police have started, especially the recent one where we have tied up with HDFC Bank for compensation to the policemen. The HDFC Bank will now give compensation of Rs. 50 laksh to the police personnel who dies while on duty dealing with cases of terrorism and violence. A compensation of Rs. 30 lakhs would be given by the bank to the families of the policemen in accident cases. This facility has been extended to the police personnel from the bank and this would be in addition to the compensation given by Haryana Government.

We are also conducting annual health checkups for police personnel in the age group of 35 to 58 years of age.

We have also started rewarding police personnel for some good detections, crackdowns and arrests. We gave cash rewards to a team recently that worked on NDPS Act (Narcotics Drugs & Psychotropic Substances Act case. We have decided to regularly present cash rewards to the investigating officers whose cases have got convictions by the court.

7) You have started an initiative on wellbeing and workplace effectiveness which has been recommended for adoption by MHA. What is that about?

This initiative is part of the positive policing concept. If policemen and women are stress free they will be more effective at workplace. The idea of positive policing has been drawn from the theory of positive psychology of Prof Martin Seligman and his colleagues. This training program has been designed especially for police employees and consists of 7 highly effective positive psychology interventions. They are based on Accomplishments, Relationships, Meaning, Health, Optimism, Positive emotions, and Engagement, or ARM of HOPE. We have implemented this in Panchkula where it has shown positive results.

In Panchkula, we have been emphasizing on positive policing and motivating the police to ensure a positive workplace culture. If the policeman is stress free and happy, he will ensure a good atmosphere for citizens to feel free and contact us. We recently organized a stress relieving workshop for policemen where 700 police personnel participated and more will participate in other batches. 

          Dr. Hanif Qureshi is a BSc (Engineering) Electrical from New Delhi, He did his masters in police management from Osmania University in Hyderabad.  Apart from MTech (IT) and MBA (OB), the officer also holds a PhD in criminal justice from the University of Cincinnati, USA. His articles have been published in several US and international journals. His research interests are Crimes against women, police organizational behavior, crime in India, positive policing, and related areas.

          Dr. Qureshi had won ‘Honorable Paper’ award for research on financial frauds at the Mid-West Criminal Justice Conference, Chicago,

          He has been a recipient of Commendation from Director, National Security Guards, India, for security arrangements made for Prime Minister of India, Commendations from DGP Haryana and Home Secretary for excellent arrangements during elections and handling crime and law and order problems on various occasions. He is also the founder editor of The Haryana Police Journal.

           Dr. Qureshi has published key books- Martyrs of Haryana police, Training Manual and Handbook on Countering Trafficking in persons for Haryana Police Academy (2019) with UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime). He has also written chapters- It is just not cricket. In Match-Fixing in International Sports of Springer International Publishing.