Date:30/06/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/30/stories/2008063056190300.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Timely intervention crucial to check agitations

S. Harpal Singh

The whole affair ends up as a contest between the police and agitators in prolonged stirs

Ideal: The NH 7 comes in handy for staging protests.

ADILABAD: Perhaps for the first time after the Mudigonda firing incident, two police officers in Adilabad district have been asked to explain the circumstances under which a police party carried arms while on bandobast duty during an agitation. The incident that involved issue of memos to Nirmal DSP and SI of Narsapur (G) is one of the several that should also make the authorities think in terms of quickly addressing issues in order to control agitations from dragging on for longer time thereby causing problems for people on the road.

While on escort duty of a VIP recently, the Sub Inspector was ordered to proceed pronto to the site of an impromptu dharna. Due to the immediacy involved the officer could do no better than arrive at the scene with armed policemen in his jeep. Such a move however contravened apparently the order issued to policemen after the Mudigonda incident for not carrying arms during agitations. The month of June was characterised as much for deficient rainfall as for the deluge of agitations in the district that kept the police force on tenterhooks. During the month, nearly 90 rasta rokos, 76 dharnas, 37 rallies and six rail rokos were staged by agitators across the district.

As a measure of restraint police booked the 20 cases under preventive detention and not under the sections relevant to wrongful restraint against 1,446 persons who had blocked the roads. Only six criminal cases were registered during the period. These numbers still are a record for any one month in the district.

Not just leaders of political parties but policemen also blame the administration that does not lend an ear to their pleas leave alone address the grievance. “Where is the need for us to prolong the agitation if officials take notice of our problems,” points out B. Goverdhan Reddy, district president of Telugu Rythu. “As the agitations get prolonged the attention shifts to policemen on bandobast duty. The whole affair ends up as a contest between police and the agitators because of the delay by officers in talking to the agitators,” adds a police officer.