more-in “Welcome to people’s friendly police... Telangana police...” Anyone making a phone call to a police officer in Telangana on their official mobile phone is greeted with this ringtone, which evidently attempts to depict the uniformed service in a different light. The police department is on its way to changing its conventional image of a tyrant force to one which guides common people to overcome their problems and solve issues. Desilting initiative A good example of its endeavour towards addressing people’s problems is the current desilting of a 13.6 km stretch of the main canal of Vattivagu project in Asifabad mandal of Kumram Bheem Asifabad district. The initiative aims at saving crops on about 3,500 acres from drying up in the villages of Kairigaon, Nakkalguda, Punjumeraguda, Indiranagar, Singalguda, Parasnambala and Gangapur in Rebbena mandal and Buruguda, Mekalwada and Edulwada in Asifabad mandal. A few days ago, the farmers under the ayacut of Vattivagu project had staged a protest demanding release of water from the project to save the paddy which was drying up. It was discovered that the entire main canal and its distributaries were clogged with silt which had cotton as well as paddy drying up on about 400 acres in Kairigaon alone. “At least 150 acres in my village was damaged due to lack of water. But, we are happy with this development (desilting),” said Munjam Suresh, a farmer from Kairigaon. Prompt action KB Asifabad Superintendent of Police M. Malla Reddy realised the solution was removal of the blockages in the canal and that it could be done under the supervision of his officers instead of waiting for the concerned department to initiate action. On his request, a coal extracting agency under the Singareni Collieries Company Limited in his district allowed the police to use a heavy excavator. “Over the past five days, we removed silt and debris from the main canal for a distance of about 8km,” said Asifabad DSP A. Satyanarayana, who is supervising the works which require his presence in the field for about two hours a day. Rebbena CI Ramana Murthy and SI Deekonda Ramesh are the officers monitoring the work on field. Past examples This trend of police department addressing people’s issues in distant rural areas started in the early 2000s in former united Adilabad district. One of the major achievements of the police department under Mahesh M. Bhagwat as Adilabad SP was laying of the Gangapur road, now in Nirmal district. Subsequently, laying of scores of roads was facilitated by police, connecting far-flung villages to main centres. This monsoon saw Adilabad police repairing damaged roads in interior parts which gave people easy access to hospitals.

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