Bhopal: Sudhir Kumar Saxena, a 1992-batch IPS officer, assumed office as director-general of police (DGP), at the Madhya Pradesh Police Headquarters in Bhopal on Friday. After CP Jabalpur in 1989 and postings in various districts as SP and DIG in CID, Saxena was posted as secretary at MP Bhawan in New Delhi from 2009 to 2011. He returned to MP as IG intel and served as OSD to Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan from 2012 to 2014. He moved back to Delhi as Joint director MHA in 2016 and was then posted as DG CISF in 2018. He was promoted and continued as Special DG CISF before being appointed secretary (Security), Cabinet Secretariat in August last year.
After assuming his office Saxena said that his focus will be on smart policing and the use of technology besides working for community policing. “We will work on the priority of the state government and will strengthen the police technically” he said. Saxena thanked chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhag and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for giving him the opportunity as DGP, and said that he would work to the expectations of the government as well as the public. Saxena took charge from 1884-batch IPS Vivek Johri, who was announced as DGP of the then chief minister Kamal sing V K Singh in March 2020.
During the farewell ceremony, Johri stressed teamwork. “162 police personnel sacrificed their lives during Covid19. More than 14,000 police officers and employees were tested positive. Despite lack of training on dealing with pandemics, police performed effectively and efficiently. The department has also created many records with public cooperation.” He said attempts were made to connect the department with technology by starting e-FIR and e-deliberation in the state “Police department has won a lot of trust in front of the government. Due to this, we were able to start the police commissioner system in two cities, Bhopal and Indore.” he added.