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First bat, then baton: All fair games

C.V.Anand who always wanted to be a cricketer, resigned from competitive cricket and chose a different
ground to play. With the choice of administration as career, only the bat was exchanged with the baton as
he joined Indian Police Service. Both in cricket and administration he proved himself as the lead scorer.

Ashish Kumar Rath


Hyderabad, October 4

Cricket is in my blood. I used to think, eat, sleep, dream cricket. Never thought of joining administration,
says CV Anand, the young Inspector General of Hyderabad police. The additional commissioner of traffic in
Hyderabad city, at present, was born to a middle class family in Hyderabad. He completed his schooling
from Vidyaranya High School in Saifabad.
Anand started playing cricket while pursuing his Intermediate in Jagirdars College and represented many
inter-college cricket tournaments proving his prowess as an all-rounder. During his graduation in commerce
at Nizam College in commerce he was completely in the competitive cricket playing inter-university
tournaments. He represented the south zone in CK Nayudu trophy, Vizzy trophy while pursuing his post
graduation in economics at Osmania University. His dream came true when he was chosen in the Under-19
Indian cricket team that toured England. He did fare well in all the matches against the county cricket clubs
during the tour. Not only in cricket, he won many prizes in athletics through out his student career and was
part of the team that won the National inter-college basketball championship.
Anand left the competitive cricket at the peak of his career. Being belong to a middle class family, it was
quite difficult to take cricket as a career that looms with ‘uncertainty’, he says. He took up civil service
examinations and cleared it in his very first attempt at the age of 24.
As an Andhra cadre IPS officer, he brought many reforms to the department in his official capacities. He
received his first field training in Warangal as assistant superintendent of police (trainee) and later, as ASP
(rural). He implemented many innovations in the then naxal-prone Warangal. He took up a double-pronged
strategy to tame naxals. Apart from many encounters he led from the front with the naxals, he fairly
implemented the surrender and rehabilitation schemes for naxals. As a result, many of them could return to
the social mainstream and offered job as forest guards and home guards in the department.
After working as SP Nizamabad and Krishna districts, he was transferred to Hyderabad and took charge of
DCP of the newly created Central Zone. During his tenure, he implemented the Lake Police project in
Hussain Sagar Lake. He created an anti-suicide squad by recruiting expert divers from fishing families of
coastal Andhra to prevent the suicides at the lake. Soon the Hussain Sagar, once infamous as the suiciders’
favourite had shed its tag. A high-resolution surveillance camera with night-vision capabilities' which Anand
claims is the first of its kind in the country' had been mounted on a 55-foot tower to keep a strict vigil on
the lake area. A specially fitted patrolling jeep was also engaged to keep an eye on any suspicious activity
including pick-pocketing, eve-teasing in the lake area on a 24-hour basis. He was chosen for the President
Gallantry Award in 2001 for his outstanding contribution to police services.
The dynamic cop was promoted as DIG of Criminal Investigation Department. During his 14 months tenure,
he solved the Rs 32 crore- Krushi Cooperative Bank scam. Leading the Crime Investigation team, he
pursued the matter with the Thai government and finally managed to extradite the bank chief K
Venkateswara Rao to Hyderabad.
Here the achievement of Anand did not stop. He proposed the department to out-source the writing the case
diaries. “Engaging the police staff in record keeping and office routine activities is wastage of man power.
The police should always at the field not at office,” he says. Being impressed with the proposal the AP
government passed a special Government Order to out source the record keeping which is first-of its kind in
the country, Anand claims. Now the process has been implemented in all city police stations. For this,
Anand got appreciations from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy. The academy
mentioned the reforms in the category of best practices.
As the additional commissioner of traffic he implemented the e-challan systems in the city that made the
collection of fines from traffic violators simple. “Many plans are afoot to bring reforms in the systems
because there is always scope for improvisation,” he said.
Apart from the hectic schedule, his cricketing spirit has never taken a backseat. He is still playing for the
police zones meet and veteran teams. Recently, he represented the Indian veteran team in Australia and
was the lead scorer in the series. He also won the National police tennis championship in Vizag twice in 2004
and 2005. “May it be cricket field or administration, the sporting spirit within me always inspires me to lead
from the front,” he said.
Trivia Box

Favourite Books: David Copperfield, Kite Runner

Favourite Authors: Charles Dickens, Khaled Hosseini

Achievements:

• Selected for Indian Police Service at age of 22 in his very first attempt

• Represented India U-19 cricket team that toured England.

• Won All India police singles & doubles team championship in 2004,
2005 at Vizag.

• Played in Veteran team in Australia and was the highest scorer in


the series.

• Played for south zone in CK Nayudu trophy, Vizzy trophy(Inter-zonal


Varsity tournaments)

• Received President's Gallantry award for his dedication to service in


his career.

• Received Indian Police Medal for meritorious service in 2008.

Hobby: Cricket, Tennis, Music (Soft Rock, Instrumentals)

Interest: A long way to go in field of administration

Memorable days in college: Each day in college was a memorable one. I felt very
special when we won the National inter-college basket ball championship. I enjoyed
all the cultural meets to my fullest during my college days.

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