Kolkata: As Vineet Goyal takes over as the new commissioner of Kolkata on the last day of 2021, he has to face many challenges. From disciplining the common man in the backdrop of the rising Covid graph and Omicron scare to tackling the rising incidence of cybercrime and terrorist sleeper cells, the challenges are far too many. How does the new commissioner propose to tackle so many hurdles? ETV Bharat tries to find an answer.
Goyal replaces Soumen Mitra, who retired on Friday and was appointed as the officer on special duty to the state police training department.
The new commissioner said that tackling the sleeper cells of different terrorist organisations in the city will be his prime focus. Controlling cybercrimes and disciplining the people to adhere to Covid protocol will also be his priority.
City police headquarter sources said that recently a joint operation was carried out by Lucknow police and the detective department of Kolkata police, in which many illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators were arrested from Gulshan Colony under the Anandapur Police Station limits.
After that joint operation, the kingpin of a major human trafficking racket, Mazufur Rahman, was also arrested. Naturally, questions were raised on whether Kolkata is slowly becoming a haven for wanted criminals and terrorists from other states. The city police, as a result, received a bad reputation.
Now, as the new commissioner, Goyal wants to use his long experience with the Special Task Force (STF) in tackling this menace. State police headquarter sources said that the role of anti-rowdy officers at the police station levels are extremely important on this count. It is often alleged that these anti-rowdy officers are often non-aware of the ground realities in their respective areas and do not have updates about the movement of criminal elements in their area. Had these officers had prior information on this count, their activities could have been arrested well in advance.
At the same time, the excessive involvement of the anti-rowdy officers in the regular law & order duties does not often allow them for ground-level intelligence collections. The new commissioner is expected to take a decision to bring a balance on this count.
Sources said that immediately after taking over as the new commissioner, Goyal first interacted with the officers of the special task force of city police. He said that the special forces of both the city police and state police should work together in close coordination to bring an end to this sleeper cell menace.
Cybercrime has become a major headache for the city police in the recent past ās several people have lost several lakhs of rupees. So, Goyal intends to thoroughly overhaul and modernise the city police’s Cyber Cell. He is scheduled to hold a separate meeting with the officers of the Cyber Cell on January 4.
Sources said that Goyal wants to conduct special training sessions for the officers of the cell. Often it is seen that on the technology front often the fraudsters are way ahead of cops. However, the track records of the Cyber Cell of the city police are far better than their counterparts in the state police.
His final challenge is disciplining the people about the Covid protocol. Planning is in progress on this count. However, sources said that additional forces will be deployed on the street in enforcing Covid protocols.
