Date:15/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/15/stories/2008091559050500.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

‘Centre has failed to maintain law and order’

Special Correspondent

Hyderabad has become the crime capital: Naidu
‘A.K. Mohanty shifted due to political pressure’

HYDERABAD: Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday accused the Centre of ‘totally’ failing to maintain law and order in the wake of the serial blasts at Delhi and asked the UPA Government to quit if it was not able to handle the situation.

Condemning the Delhi blasts at a press conference here, he also demanded a white paper on the action taken in the wake of bomb blasts across the country.

He said the law and order situation had ‘completely deteriorated’ after the UPA came to power.

Fifteen blasts

Mr. Naidu said 15 blasts had occurred in different places during the last four-and-half years claiming 729 lives and injuring 1,599 people, but the Centre had not taken the incidents seriously.

He ridiculed Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil’s reported statement that the government would have acted had there been prior knowledge of the incidents.

Police and intelligence machinery had ‘become inactive’, he alleged, and demanded the government’s apology and resignation if it was not able to maintain law and order.

The situation on the security front was ‘equally bad’ in the State. Hyderabad had become the “crime capital” and a den for terrorists, the TDP leader asserted.

He accused the Central and State governments of displaying “bias” in appointments. Previous City Police Commissioner A.K. Mohanty was shifted due to pressure from certain MLAs, Mr. Naidu claimed.

Factionalism and communal violence were controlled during the Telugu Desam and the government was able to act without implementing laws like POTA.

The TDP leader took exception to Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s remark that ‘he took pity on Mr. Naidu’. Dr. Reddy was speaking out of frustration as the Congress would be routed in the elections.

‘He has no respect for democratic norms and institutions’ and was always trying to belittle and counter-attack the Opposition.

Irregularities

He said the Telugu Desam, if elected to power, would inquire into irregularities, including those pertaining to the irrigation projects, and take action.