Show self restraint: DGP

Dilbagh Singh has recently taken over as Director General of Police succeeding Dr. S.P Vaid. A 1987-batch IPS officer of J&K Cadre, Singh was DGP Prisons before being made the Director General of Police in Jammu and Kashmir.
He has held some sensitive and important positions in the state Police including serving as the intelligence chief of the state. He started his carrier as the Additional Superintendent of Police in Kupwara district.
He was made the head of the prison department in March this year after a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant Naveed Jatt escaped from police custody when he was brought to the hospital from the Srinagar Central Jail for treatment. Gunmen killed two policemen before they whisked away Naveed Jatt. The Kashmir Magaizine caught up with the new DGP. Following are the excerpts of the brief conversation.

What would be your priorities as DGP?

Ans : The situation in valley despite best efforts is still a bit disturbed . Even though we have been successful to restore peace to a large extent, there are still attempts to disturb that, which has affected the lives of people and work of other institutions. My focus would be to strengthen efforts of restoring complete normalcy. Besides that, efforts would be taken to strengthen Police- Public Contacts . I would also work on channeling our youth towards positive direction.

“Fake News’ has been a concern off late. How would you handle that?

Ans : I urge people particularly youth to refrain from posting unverified contents on the social media . such posts create law and order problems and sometimes become the reason for people to lose even their lives. People must behave responsibly to keep the social order intact.
police always tries to negate the fake news but it would not restrict its role on rebutting the fake news only as it has to do many other things which are pro-people and pro-youth.

Police has been busy in Law and order problems. Dot you think this has help in rise of social crimes in the society?

Ans: Police has to tackle the day to day crimes also and it will not lag behind in dealing with the social crimes. Dealing with the social crimes would be among my top priorities so that the social fabric of the society doesn’t become a collateral damage to law and order situation.
J&K Police would strengthen the pro-people initiatives and would welcome the NGO participation in its social outreach.

Do you have a new strategy to deal with the prevailing situation?

Ans : -youth should refrain from stone pelting. There can be a temptation to express anger, the youth should not use stone pelting as a medium for expressing anger.
self restraint is the best thing under circumstances.
credit must go youth for the reduction in stone pelting incidents. Reformative measures are also being taken for the boys indulging in stone pelting .Generally police tends to be liberal with the boys keeping their little age into consideration but sometimes it becomes necessary for police to deal with those who are habitual of stone pelting.
youth are our assets and police is contemplating to strengthen and widen its pro-youth initiatives.

Do you any plans for expanding the schemes aiming Police welfare especially for SPOs.?

Ans : The concept of engaging SPO is that of a temporary kind of engagement but in Jammu and Kashmir, the situation is such that this kind of engagement has become almost a regular nature of job.
Many initiatives are being taken for the welfare of the SPOs and their remunerations are also being increased at regular times.

What is you reading of the current situation and what are plans to build confidence among public

Ans : we are living in a situation where two forces are working simultaneously and one among them is hell-bent to keep the pot boiling and disturb the environment around.
For those people who keep on fomenting trouble, this is not now their habit but a necessity.
While dealing with the culprits, the police always want to keep the innocents out from the action but sometimes some innocents also are affected due to those who want to see the situation adverse.
Policemen are among the people and these policemen have come from this very society where their relatives, their families belong to.
How can a local policeman go against the interests of his own people.