Chouhan Govt grilled for rising crime graph

Bhopal, July 24 (UNI) The opposition members today grilled the Shivraj Singh Chouhan Government in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly for a number of dacoities in the state capital and deteriorating law and order situation and staged a walkout dissatisfied with the government reply.

The opposition, led by its leader Jamuna Devi, staged the walk out despite the Chief Minister's announcement that the government was serious to nab the culprits and give justice to the victims through recovery of looted property.

Admitting that the number of police personnel had not been increased in proportion to tbe population growth, Mr Chouhan said about 2,000 police personnel would be recruited to overcome the staff shortage.

Intervening in the discussions on a call attention notice on a spate of dacoities in the state capital, the Chief Minister said serious efforts were on to nab the culprits and the police got certain clues, but declined to share it in the house as a strategy.

Strict vigil was being maintained to avert such incidents, he added.

Minister of State for Home Nagendra Singh rejected the opposition demand for dismissal of the Director General of Police and suspension of Superintendent of Police for their alleged failure to control crime saying so far no laxity was found in the working of the DGP, IG and SP. ''The government will not allow them to continue on the post even for a day if they are found guilty'', he added.

During the discussion, the house plunged into uproar on many occasion with ruling and opposition members trading charges on the functioning of the police. Speaker Ishwardas Rohani expunged the opposition remarks relating to spurt in crime in areas other than the state capital.

Referring to dacoities at the houses of a retired IAS officer, a hotelier and a builder, loot of truck drivers and loot attempt at the Makhanlal Chaturvedi Journalism University, the opposition members said the city dwellers felt insecure due to a spate of crimes and the police failure to arrest the culprits.

Mr Nagendra Singh, in his reply, said police got certain clues about the pre-planned attacks and teams were working on it at Delhi and in Bihar. The government had taken a serious note of the incidents and was hopeful of reaching at the culprits very soon, he said, adding ''We have sympathy for the victims''.

Mr Sajjan Singh Verma, Mr Arif Aqueel, Mr Sunil Nayak, Mr Sukhdeo Panse, Mr Ramniwas Rawat and Mr Narayan Tripathi, who took part in the discussions, alleged political interference in police working and suspected complicity of police officials in few major crimes.

UNI SP RL DS1615