NEW DELHI: Rakesh Asthana, a 1984-batch Gujarat cadre IPS officer, assumed the office of Commissioner of Delhi Police on Wednesday. He has been given the charge three days before his retirement as Director General, Border Security Force (BSF), and was directed to take the charge as Delhi Police chief with immediate effect by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
After taking over as the Delhi Police chief, Asthana addressed the top police brass in Vimarsh Conference Hall at Police Headquarters while other senior functionaries joined him through video conferencing.
Hailing Delhi Police as the premier police force of the country with a formidable reputation in delivering services and handling challenging situations, Asthana outlined the basics of policing prevention and detection of crime and maintenance of law & order and attention to ‘special tasks’ as priority areas.
“I took charge as the Delhi Police commissioner today. I believe in the basic concepts of policing, that is, maintenance of law and order, prevention of crime that is the basic thing which we are supposed to do. If these things are done properly, peace prevails in the society. There are certain specialised problems, for which there are separate SOPs. We will work accordingly,” he later told mediapersons.
“Delhi Police has a brilliant past. Lot of good work has been done by the force in the past. Lots of complicated cases have been solved. Lots of complicated situations have been handled by the Delhi Police. I believe in team work and I hope with this team work, we will be able to put the best foot forward for the betterment of society and prevalence of peace,” he underlined.