Southern States
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Karnataka
Govt. not in favour of more commissionerates: Kharge
By Our Staff Correspondent
GULBARGA, DEC. 2. The Home Minister, Mr. Mallikarjun Kharge, has hinted that the Government is not in favour of establishing more commissionerates and that it wants to strengthen the existing police network.
Participating in the ``Samakshama'' programme organised by Doordarshan Kendra here, Mr. Kharge, in response to a question, said the Government was reconsidering the issue of establishing the commissionerates in Gulbarga, Davangere, Belgaum, and Mangalore.
He said if a commissionerate was established in a place such as Gulbarga, an officer of the rank of Inspector-General of Police would have to be appointed as Commissioner. He would have officers of the rank of Superintendents of Police, and Deputy Superintendents of Police and other staff having jurisdiction over a population of five lakhs. ``The same work is now being done by the Superintendent of Police who also looks after the entire district,'' he pointed out.
Mr. Kharge said the approach should be to strengthen the police force at the lower level by opening new police stations, upgrading the existing ones, and providing them with additional facilities which would go a long way in maintenance of law and order and control crime.
He said to strengthen the police network in cities where the crime rate was going up, the Government had decided to add 20 constables each in 100 police stations.
Replying to another question, Mr. Kharge said the Government had decided to form a crack force called ``Bhima'' in Gulbarga on the lines of ``Hoysala'' in Bangalore. Three vehicles had already been provided to the district police for the purpose and three more would be sanctioned soon. The vehicles would hit the road in a week, the minister said.
On the bifurcation of Gulbarga District, he said the Government was in favour of locating the headquarters of the new district at Yadgir. ``We want to take all sections into confidence and arrive at a consensus on carving out the new district from Gulbarga and locating the headquarters of the new district at Yadgir,'' he said.
Red gram board
Mr. Kharge said the Chief Minister, Mr. S.M.Krishna, had, in principle, approved the constitution a red gram board and an announcement in this regard would be made soon.
On the demand for establishing more women police stations, the minister said at present such police stations had been set up only in some cities on an experimental basis. The Government wanted the existing women police stations to function properly.
On the Prevention of Terrorist Ordinance (POTO), Mr. Kharge said the Opposition and the Karnataka Government did not support it as the Prime Minister, Mr. A.B.Vajpayee, had gone back on his assurance that the Union Government would consult the State governments and the Opposition parties if the Centre decided to bring in an ordinance to curb terrorist activities.
He said that the Union Government had convened a meeting of chief ministers after issuing the Ordinance and later discussed the issue with the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Ms. Sonia Gandhi. The statement of the Union Home Minister, Mr. L.K.Advani, that the BJP would stand to gain even if the Bill was defeated in Parliament sent wrong signals, Mr. Kharge said and added that Mr. Advani's statement proved the apprehension of the Opposition parties that POTO was being promulgated for political gain, and containing terrorism was not the intention.
He said the provisions in Karnataka Organised Crime Act were mild compared to the provisions in POTO.
He told a questioner that the Government was committed to take up development works in Lambada tandas in Konchavaram which shot into fame after the exposure of illegal sale of female babies. The Government had asked the deputy commissioners to send proposals for converting the tandas and hamlets into revenue villages.
The Director of Doordarshan Kendra, Mr. Mahesh Joshi, welcomed the guests. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr. M.Lakshminarayan, the Chief Executive Officer of the Gulbarga Zilla Panchayat, Mr. M.Maheshwara Rao, and the ZP President, Mr. Allamaprabhu Patil, were present.
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