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Sunday, Feb 20, 2005

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Scindia concerned over rising crime graph

By Our Staff Correspondent

The Congress Member of Parliament, Jyotiraditya Scindia, the Leader of Opposition, Jamuna Devi, and the Deputy Speaker, Hazarilal Raghuwanshi, at a meeting in Bhopal on Friday. Photo: A.M. Faruqui

BHOPAL, FEB. 19. The Congress M.P. from Guna, Jyotiraditya Scindia has expressed serious concern over the alarming rise in the crime graph in Madhya Pradesh and pulled up the Madhya Pradesh Bharartiya Janata Party Government for failure on its part to tackle the law and order situation.

Mr. Scindia was talking to newspersons during a brief halt in the State capital on his way to Indore last night. He said that the law and order situation in the Gwalior-Chambal region was worse than the scenario prevailing in other parts of the State. "What was preventing the police from nabbing the Rambabu-Gadaria gang even four months after it had killed 13 villagers at Bhanwarpura village in Gwalior district's Mohna Police Station area," he said when asked to comment on the surrender by the Arvind Gujjar gang in Bhind district recently.

It is not only that people have now started attacking policemen and such incidents were on the rise in the State but the bigger problem is that even the police have started shooting innocent people, he said recalling how on October 3 last year, three innocent people were killed by the police in Ambah-Porsa village in Morena district.

Mr. Scindia said that law and order was crucial and it was the State Government's responsibility to ensure people's safety before taking up developmental activities.

He agreed that the Congress had lost the Assembly election on issues like road, electricity and water, but the power supply to the farm sector has been badly hit and the students were suffering due to massive power cuts these days.

The BJP came to power talking of roads, power and water but one sees total lack of action on all these fronts, Mr. Scindia pointed out. He said that it was through his initiative that the Task Force on Chanderi, headed by the State Chief Minister, met recently after a long gap. This Task force was set up to promote the craft of Chanderi and protect the master weavers from exploitation.

Mr. Scindia said that Madhya Pradesh can catch up with the other developed States, only if the State BJP Government develops a long-term vision and starts working on its developmental plans in a time bound manner.

It is also important that accountability should be fixed when it comes to officers and bureaucrats linked with developmental activities.

Mr. Scindia also took a dig at the State Government's Budget presented in the Assembly yesterday. He said that the Government does not deserve a pat if it claims that there was no overdraft for even a single day during the financial year 2004-05 because it is better to go for overdraft and utilise the extra fund for building capital assets instead of ending up doing very little in terms of infrastructure development due to paucity of funds.

Mr. Scindia also met the leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Jamuna Devi, Deputy Speaker, Hazarilal Raghuvanshi and a large number of local Congress leaders and party workers.

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Scindia concerned over rising crime graph