Indian Police Service officer Sandeep Shandilya who came to the hot seat of Hyderabad Police Commissioner on October 13 less 45 days before the Telangana Assembly Elections is a happy man. The polling in Hyderabad has been largely peaceful and uneventful except for stray cases of impersonation albeit the polling percentage has remailed low. Mr Shandilya speaks about taking charge as the city police chief and steps he took to ensure an incident-free election. “Policing is not tough. All we have to do is understand the majesty of law and follow the book,” said the official. Excerpts from an interview:
Challenges faced during transitioning to the new role
I took charge on October 13, which was after the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) came into effect. The first thing I did was to identify the qualities of my officers and utilise them accordingly. Some are tech-savvy, some are smart, some are courageous, some resilient. I wanted to identify and utilise those traits in a useful manner.
