In his address at the Farewell Parade on the occasion of his retirement today, Gupta said, "Constables have to be treated with respect. They are the people who stand in the sun at 45 degree Celsius. It is easy to talk about policing sitting in AC rooms, but they do not have these comforts. We have to understand their problems".
Most of the constables travel more than two-and-a-half hours to their offices and work more than 12 hours, Gupta said as he was given a warm farewell.
"Really they are the heroes. They work in hard situations. We have to motivate them," he said.
Gupta also said that he had a "very satisfying" tenure as the capital's police chief and claimed that street crime had reduced after he took over.
On his nearly two-year tenure, Gupta said that under his leadership, the Delhi Police faced almost all issues successfully.
"We had said street crime will be controlled and I am happy to say that in 2011 and 2012 there was decrease in the numbers. In terror front also, we have achieved many successes by arresting so many terrorists. The backbone of policing is beat system and we have revived it", he said.
Gupta, who took charge as Commissioner on November 10, 2010 after then chief Y S Dadwal was transfered to the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) as its Director General, retires today and will hand over charge to senior IPS officer Neeraj Kumar.