Bengaluru: Praveen Sood, the newly appointed Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru, said on Sunday that importance would be given to the protection of children, women and senior citizens apart from preventing the crime in Bengaluru city.

Speaking with media persons after assuming office, Praveen Sood said the first and top most priority would be to provide people-centric policing in the city. “It is not important just imposing a penalty on motorists for violating traffic rules. The need of the hour is to ensure smooth movement of vehicular traffic in Bengaluru. Commuting will be hassle-free in the city if all the motorists follow traffic rules. Traffic police will intensify drive against drunken drive in the city but precautions will be taken to avoid inconvenience to the motorists during the drive against the drunken drive. We will take measures to avoid unnecessarily checking of vehicle documents by the traffic police,’’ the Commissioner of Police said.

He said that police department had received complaints against traffic police checking vehicles documents unnecessarily thus causing traffic jams on the city roads. He said the police department would introduce a new system, which would help the citizens, who lodged complaints with the police, to know about the status of their complaints. “It will help the citizens to avoid visiting the police stations to know the status of their complaints,’’ he said.

Assuring the people of Bengaluru to make sincere efforts to bring down the activities of rowdy elements and land mafia in the city, he said the police department has decided to reduce the number of days – from 15 days to 10 days – to complete the police verification of passport documents. “I want to thank Minister for Home Dr G Parameshwar and the state government for selecting me to the post of Commissioner of Police. I had an opportunity to work in all departments. It will help me to perform my duty as the Commissioner of Police,’’ he said.