New police zone in Western UP

According to a release issued by the state’s Public Relations and Information Department,the move aims to put an effective check on the growing crime graph in Western UP. The headquarters of the zone will be in Meerut city. An ADG-rank officer will head the zone,and he will oversee policing in Meerut,Ghaziabad,Gautam Buddha Nagar,Baghpat and Bulandshahr (Meerut range) and Saharanpur and Muzaffarnagar districts (Saharanpur range).

The government has shifted IPS Amitabh Yash from his current post as SSP of Gautam Buddha Nagar to SP,Railways,Lucknow,following the CM’s order. It has also transferred Gautam Buddha Nagar’s ASP,CO,besides the SHO of Noida’s Sector 39 police station. The CM has ordered a letter of appreciation for Deepak Agrawal,DM of Gautam Buddha Nagar,for commendable work.

The new police zone came as a surprise,especially after the state government abolished all seven posts of zonal IGs in February 2009. After abolition of zonal IGs,the zonal system,which provided three-layer police supervision,came to an end. The seven police zones were Lucknow,Allahabad,Gorakhpur,Bareilly,Meerut,Kanpur and Varanasi. Under the current system,IG-rank officers are posted as head of the nine police ranges out of a total of 18 ranges.

“The CM has now realized the need for a three-layer supervision system in the police. I hope this is the beginning of the restoration of the zonal system of policing,” a senior IPS officer said.