Home Minister promises safeguards

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, JAN. 13. The Home Minister, Mr. T. Devendar Goud, has sought to allay apprehensions over the possible misuse of the Andhra Pradesh Prevention and Control of Organised Crime Ordinance, which arms the police with special powers, and said many safeguards would be introduced shortly to check this aspect.

Speaking to reporters after reviewing the functioning of the city police on Saturday, Mr. Devendar Goud said the next Cabinet meeting would discuss in detail on the safeguards to be introduced to check abuse of the new ordinance. A complaint cell would be created shortly to exclusively deal with public grievances against the Police Department.

The Home Minister justified the promulgamation of the new ordinance saying that the Government was bothered about the gradual change in the crime pattern in Hyderabad. ``We cannot allow the situation to slip out of control in the State capital.'' He asserted that the Government wanted Hyderabad to be the safest city in the country. ``Hyderabad is fast expanding. We are inviting all industries, including the film industry, to Hyderabad. We should be very careful about it (maintenance of law and order),'' Mr. Goud said.

When his attention was drawn to the earlier claims that Hyderabad was relatively free from organised crime compared to any other metro in the country, Mr. Goud replied that there was a discernible change in the crime pattern in the city. ``Either way we have never given any powers to the police and expected tremendous performance from them. This naturally leads to abuse of their power to achieve results.'' Now that the Government is arming the police with more powers, the abuse of power should come down, he reasoned.

CPI(M) critical of Govt.

Meanwhile, the State Committee of the CPI (M) criticised the Government for ``hurriedly'' deciding to issue an ordinance ostensibly to check organised crime, without discussing the same in the Assembly, a session of which is round the corner.

In a statement, Mr. B. V. Raghavulu, secretary of the State CPI (M), said the important ordinance having far-reaching provisions, including ordering of death and life sentence and telephone tapping, was planned to be introduced, without discussing the same with political parties, different organisations and intellectuals.

He said there was a possibility of various organisations expressing concern at the ordinance provisions violating democratic and civil rights. Instead of leaving scope for such concerns, he demanded that the issue be discussed in the Assembly.

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Section  : Southern States
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