The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : 2008: policing draws flak

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Monday, Dec 29, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

2008: policing draws flak

S. Harpal Singh

Understaffing emerges as the bugbear of Police Department

- PHOTO: G. SANJEEV REDDY

Crime watch: Adilabad Superintendent of Police Anil Kumar supervises investigation process at a petrol bunk on NH-7 near Adilabad where an armed robbery took place towards the year end.

ADILABAD: The Bhainsa communal riots of October will overshadow any claims of achievement that the police department in Adilabad may like to proffer this year. Despite the crime graph having registered a general down trend in 2008 critics have labelled it a demoralised force considering the manner in which even general policing was done, leave alone the communal incidents.

Understaffing has emerged as the bugbear of the police department that was basically engaged in bandobast duties during agitations of which there was a plethora every day.

The overstretched policemen presented a pathetic picture as passive onlookers when people broke the law with impunity.

The meagre number of cases booked against those who resorted to agitations like rasta rokos is ample evidence of the reluctance on the part of the department.

Another factor that badly affected the functioning of police came to light after an armed robbery took place at a petrol bunk on the NH-7 near Adilabad town.

The highway patrol vehicles were not being used since long for the reason that the government has neither allocated personnel especially for patrolling highways nor it sanctioned fuel quota for these vehicles. Highway patrolling therefore, was suspended after a few weeks of its inception in 2004.

Surprisingly, it was the naxalites who provided the police department with some relief. The Maoists did not commit even a single offence in the district though their movement was reported during the latter half of 2008.

The crime record reveals that the total number of crimes committed during the year was about 4,700 as compared to 5, 126 in 2007 and 5, 373 in 2006.

Only the number of house breakings this year was slightly more than the previous two years while murders have come down as has the number of crimes against women from 823 in 2006 and 769 in 2007 to 579 this year.

A few of the crimes against women like the one that surfaced in Adilabad town indicating of the existence of a sex racket became sensational though.

The number of crimes against the Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Castes also was slightly lower compared to the previous years.

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