Chennai: Greater Chennai’s new police Commissioner, Mahesh Kumar Agarwal, took charge of the office this morning at the Commissionerate in Vepery. He is 107th Commissioner of the city.
Outgoing Commissioner A K Viswanathan, who has been appointed as ADGP-Operations, handed over the charges to him. Both the officials are also swapping their positions.
At the event, Viswanathan expressed thanks to his colleagues for their co-operation and urged everyone to continue their efforts for the police department’s smooth functioning.
Agarwal is from the 1994-batch Indian Police Service officer. He has previously held the role of ADGP (Operations) and also served as Inspector General of Police in the Crime Branch – Criminal Investigation Department. He was also the Commissioner of Police, Madurai City.
Impressively, when the novel Coronavirus broke out, he was posted as the nodal officer in Chennai’s North Zone in April to assist Greater Chennai Corporation in containing the spread of Covid-19.
He also played a vital role in the migrant crisis during the pandemic.
Agarwal has asked the public to wear masks, follow social distancing and stay indoors during the lockdown.
‘It is the duty of police to come out and work. We are using masks, washing our hands and using hand sanitisers. But if you stay indoors we will be more protected. We request public co-operation’, he said.
This morning, after he took charge, he addressed the media and said that his focus was to serve the public and work for welfare of police.
He said he was going to start a new initiative where the public could come on video calls and tell their grievances instead of coming to the police station.
‘A time and date will be fixed for the public to tell their grievances on video call’, he said.
Agarwal said he will be continuing the ‘Third Eye’ project, which is installing CCTV cameras across the city as it has proved to be very useful.
As an Additional Commissioner for South, he has been part of the project.