The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Naxal violence on decline after peace process: DGP

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 31, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Naxal violence on decline after peace process: DGP

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, DEC. 30. The peace process initiated by the Congress Government after it assumed office in May has resulted in a steep decline in naxal violence in the State. The violence went down by 80 to 90 per cent, the outgoing Director General of Police, S.R. Sukumara, and other senior police officials told a news conference here on Thursday while reviewing the crime rate in the State at the end of the year.

According to statistics released by him, extremists killed 66 persons, including seven policemen in encounters and other attacks, up to May 14 and only four afterwards. There were no casualties among both policemen and extremists although there were five encounters during the peace period. There were 57 encounters prior to May 14 in which 45 extremists were killed.

Overall, the naxal violence receded by 14.4 per cent in the entire year with 790 offences reported as against 923 in the previous year.

Mr. Sukumara said the accelerated promotions extended by the present Government to policemen for outstanding work in extremism actually related to their performance in previous years. The scheme was stayed by the High Court last year but vacated by the Supreme Court this year. The operation of the scheme had nothing to do with ceasefire.

Property recovery

As a result of the police lowering its guard on naxalites in the ongoing peace process, they could concentrate more on crime detection. This led to recovery of property worth Rs. 24.5 crores (50 per cent) in the year, he said.

The DGP maintained that another gratifying matter for the police was the decrease in violent incidents of communal nature from 199 to six. There were no casualties on this front as against eight last year.

Rise in road mishaps

A sour note in policing was the continued increase in road accidents. The fatalities went up from 9,590 last year to 10,614 (11 per cent increase).

The Raghavachary Committee identified over 190 accident-prone zones in the State but only 45 of them received attention and steps taken to prevent mishaps at those places.

The DGP expressed satisfaction with the police bandobust for Krishna pushkarams and the general elections. Naxalites disrupted poll process at only one village in Visakhapatnam district, he added.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh