Binaya Behera becomes first police commissioner of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar

The New Indian Express, Nov 3, 2007

BHUBANESWAR: As a step towards implementation of the commissionerate system in the twin cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, the State Government on Friday appointed senior IPS officer Binay Kumar Behera as the first commissioner-designate.

An officer of the 1982 batch, Behera is now the Chairmancum- Managing Director of the Orissa State Road Transport Corporation (OSRTC). The process will take a while as the Government is yet to notify the introduction of the commissionerate system.

The Assembly had passed the Orissa Urban Police Bill in December, 2003 and the Bill got the presidential nod recently.

The Centre has also approved it. The commissionerate would comprise all police stations of the two cities, including those in the adjoining areas — Baranga, Choudwar and Jagatpur of Cuttack district and Jatni, Chandaka, Balianta and Balipatna of Khurda district. The remaining police stations of Cuttack and Khurda districts would be under the respective rural DSPs.

There would be two additional commissioners (ACPs) in the rank of DIG to be posted in the two cities. ACPs would have two DCPs under them who would be officers in the SP rank.

The Commissioner, ACPs and DCPs will have magisterial power. The magisterial powers entail powers under the Criminal Procedure Code like issuing of arms and driving licences, making preventive arrests, regulation of migrants, crowd management, parking, traffic and road regulations, among other things. Currently these powers are with the civil administration.

The Government has also formed a high power committee comprising the Director-General of Police and senior officials to study the functioning of the commissionerate system in other cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata and submit a report within a month. Commissioner-designate Behera said this is a big responsibility and a challenge.