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Cops ill-equipped to face well-armed criminals
Cong-JMM may not get advantage in second phase
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Cops ill-equipped to face well-armed criminals Lakshisarai, February 15 “Yes, they (criminals) have the edge over the state and central police forces because they have better resources in terms of speed and firepower”, a senior police official pointed out . A clear evidence was visible in a rural police station of the Suryagadha Assembly constituency where the phone was not functioning and the arrival of central forces here had brought serious strain on the available resources. On the contrary, “the criminal gangs use Bolero, Qualis and other state- of- the- art vehicles. They possess AK-56 and AK-47 rifles and pistols which they import via the
porous Nepal border. Some of them have even satellite phones while mobiles are common”, the official said. “They commit a crime like looting of an election booth and escape speedily. They throw a bomb to scare the voters and drive away from the scene. They use mobiles to communicate”, he pointed out. In six Lok Sabha and Assembly elections since 1996, 175 persons have been killed and 570 injured in poll violence, officials point out ,adding that in the first phase 11 were killed. In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, 15 were killed and 78 injured, according to the state police. In the 2000 Assembly elections, 48 persons were killed and 118 injured which is a record in itself, according to official figures. In 2004, 542 persons were murdered in criminal incidents in Patna district alone. Growing Left-wing militancy and Naxal violence has put extra burden on the state administration. In the past five years, more than 60 policemen, including Munger SP K C Surendra Babu, were killed in landmine explosions. The majority of 850 police stations are in a bad state with facilities for the upkeep of the force being absent. The force often enough does not have a proper place to sleep or a place to eat. It results in extra pressure and mental fatigue on the force. The state police has only Maruti Gypsies or old Mahindra jeeps and weapons of second World War vintage, an official said. “The communication is awful as none of the police station phones functions because of the non-payment of dues. Station house officers do not have mobile phones so it becomes very difficult to make timely and effective intervention”, he said The nexus between crime and politics puts a serious constraint on the administration, the police official said. “Often enough, we have information but we are not allowed to act swiftly by our political masters”, he said ,adding that “the criminals who are rich in terms of resources make regular payments to political bosses”.“It leads to demoralisation among the police ranks”, he stressed. Recalling the arrest of BSP Lok Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh Kailashnath Yadav on January 25 before the voting for the first phase of the ongoing Assembly elections, the official said that the incident was merely the tip of the iceberg As many as 12 persons facing criminal charges and noted history -sheeters are in the electoral fray. And, where they are not contesting themselves, they have fielded their wives mostly on the symbols of parties such as the RJD, the LJP and the JD (U). “In this kind of environment and condition, it is very difficult to improve aw and order in the
state”, the police official observed with a sense of frustration.
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Cong-JMM may not get advantage in second phase Ranchi, February 15 The BJP Government may not have left a mark by its work in the past four years, but it has work to show. People say roads are better and power scenario is looking up. The BJP has also gained from its government’s scheme of giving money for the marriage of a girl from the weaker sections and its move to give tribal status to the Kurmis in the state. The Kurmis have a sizeable presence in nearly 15 of 29 seats which went to the polls today. Though the move to include more groups in the ST category has been resisted by a section of the tribal population, the BJP’s known tribal leaders have worked to prevent a backlash. Learning from their organisational weakeness of the last election, BJP has given attention to booth management this time. The Congress has itself to blame for the surge in BJP fortunes. The party worked out a clumsy seat-sharing arrangement with UPA allies for the first-phase poll. Though there was more clarity in seat-sharing with the JMM in the second phase, Congress workers are upset over the party “taking less than its share” of seats from the JMM and giving away certain “winning seats” to the alliance partner. Unable to get over its son-daughter fixation, the Congress has given the ticket to sons of four party MPs in these elections. Most of them are relying on their parents to take them to the winning post. Unlike the BJP or the JMM, the Congress does not seem to have state leaders with a mass appeal. Jharkhand PCC chief Sushila Karketta spent most of her time in Khunti to boost the prospects of her son Roshan Kumar Surin. The party adopted community-specific approach with different leaders addressing different constituencies. Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s four rallies in the state are expected to boost its prospects. The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha has focussed its campaign in rural areas. JMM chief Shibu Soren has toured extensively to revive his grass-roots contacts, cultivated over the past 40 years, to take the party’s candidates through. The BJP-JD(U) combine may not reach its earlier tally of 21 in the 29 seats which went to the polls today, but the NDA is unlikely to suffer major reverses.
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