‘One Mandal–One Police Officer’: Maharashtra’s New Move for Safer Festive Celebrations

To ensure smooth law and order during the festive season, the Director General of Police (DGP) Rashmi Shukla has announced a new initiative titled ‘One Mandal – One Police Officer’. Under this scheme, a designated police officer will be assigned responsibility for each festival mandal across the state.

Maharashtra witnesses large-scale celebrations of religious and cultural festivals every year. Managing these events poses a major challenge for the police, with added responsibilities of crowd management, traffic control, preventing disputes, and ensuring public safety.

Through this new scheme, every police station jurisdiction will prepare a list of all mandals. Depending on the availability of officers, each police personnel will be allotted one or two mandals. The officer will regularly coordinate with the office bearers of the mandal, hold meetings, and address emerging issues in real time.

The responsibilities of the officer will include staying in constant touch with the mandal before the festival begins, attending preparatory meetings, laying down law-and-order conditions, resolving crowd and traffic-related issues promptly, and escalating permission-related matters to senior officials when needed.

Additionally, WhatsApp groups comprising the assigned officer, concerned mandal representatives, and the local police station will be created to facilitate quick communication and exchange of information.

DGP Rashmi Shukla expressed confidence that the initiative will strengthen coordination between police and mandals, prevent confusion, disputes, and indiscipline, and ultimately ensure that festivals are celebrated in an organised and safe manner across Maharashtra.