New Gurgaon police chief wants to promote carpooling to ease traffic problem

Gurgaon: Sibash Kabiraj, who took charge as the new commissioner of police (CP) on Wednesday, acknowledged that traffic is among the biggest problems in the city.Already having plans to decongest Gurgaon, Kabiraj said he would hold talks with various employers to promote carpooling, which can help reduce the number of vehicles on the road and address congestion.Sharing his priorities with TOI, the new top cop said, “As it is, the central and the state govts are pushing to adopt austerity measures, and I will try to take all efforts to ensure the traffic problem is addressed at the earliest. Carpooling can be a great initiative, which can ease the lives of the commuters on busy Gurgaon roads. I will also hold special meetings with the traffic police team here and focus on removing the bottlenecks and streamlining traffic in order to curb road accidents.”Talking about his other priorities, he said his focus will be to ensure maximum arrests in crimes involving cyber frauds, “which has become another major concern and challenge”, and will promote Haryana Police’s Abhedya App, which automatically blocks cyber and extortion calls.The new CP replaced Vikas Arora, a 1998-batch IPS officer, who was posted as ADGP/administration at the police headquarters in Panchkula. Kabiraj, who was earlier serving as Panchkula commissioner of police, with additional charge of ADGP/cyber, dwelt at length on increasing cyber fraud cases across the country, saying people need to understand that there cannot be a shortcut to earn money and thus they should not fall in any such cyber trap.“There are several types of cyber frauds, the latest being the gold portal frauds. People are much interested in making easy money and thus they get lured to the fake offers made to them online, promising high returns just by working from home online. There is much need to make people aware of the latest scams, and that we will focus on,” the CP said, adding that he will ensure a significant spike in arrests of the cyber fraudsters to break in their networks.Talking about the latest app of Haryana Police, he added that all the residents should use the Abhedya App, which will automatically prevent or block fake or scam calls or any calls made by any suspicious number before it reaches the receiver. “The app was made available on the Play Store application for Android phones on Tuesday, and people should avail the facility in order to save their hard-earned money,” he added.During his tenure as regional passport officer in Chandigarh, the 1999-batch IPS officer Sibash Kabiraj constituted a special task force for the women or the young brides who were abandoned by their husbands in India during their stay abroad. He worked in getting such passports cancelled. The new CP said that his efforts for women’s safety will continue and will also be his top concern here.“We will prioritise the complaints related to the crime against the women and also take strong legal steps to deal with the NRI issues,” Kabiraj said, adding that his focus will also be on crackdown on drug smugglers or peddlers.