Just hours after taking charge as the City Police Commissioner, Seemant Kumar Singh on Friday said the main priority is to build confidence among the people and provide a peaceful environment for them to stay here.

Singh, a 1996 batch IPS officer took charge as Bengaluru's top cop late night on Thursday, after Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah suspended City Police Commissioner B Dayananda and other officers for dereliction of duty in connection with Wednesday's stampede outside Chinnaswamy Stadium that claimed lives of 11 people and injured 56 people.

Speaking on the situation in which he took charge, he said, “It’s a difficult situation, no doubt. But basic policing is my priority, and I’ll be discussing with my officers and (will take note of) the feedback given by the public and press and all others. And based on that, I’ll take up the issues one by one”.

Earlier, Singh was serving as Additional Director General of Police, Bengaluru Metropolitan Task Force.

According to him, at this point, he cannot say what is his priority unless he discusses with his officers but reiterated that the situation is challenging.

“I cannot right now say which is my priority, because it will be wrong unless and until I discuss with my officers. But certainly, the situation is challenging, and the main priority is to build the confidence among the people. Bangalore City Police is for you and will always be with you and provide a peaceful environment for you to stay here," Singh told PTI Videos.

Responding to a question on the alleged system failure that led to stampede, the top cop said that it’s very premature for him as an officer to tell that. “Some things must have gone wrong. We’ll discuss about that,” he added.

When asked on growing concern about political interference in police decisions, he said, he is not aware about it and that he will be concentrating on basic policing and try to give the best, “Whatever best practices we have, and that should take care of it.” When asked what changes Bengaluru can expect in crowd management and traffic, he said “crowd management is very important, and innocent life should not go, or people should not be suffering because of traffic. It’s very important, but certainly it requires a very detailed approach, which I’ll certainly look into.”

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