Withdrawal of communal riot cases by new govts dangerous:Commiss

New Delhi, July 10 (UNI) The increasing tendency of new governments to withdraw en masse cases of communal riots instituted during the tenure of previous governments has come under sharp attack by the Second Administrative Reforms Commission.

''Such political opportunism and short sightedness have seriously contributed to erosion of public order,'' the Commission said in its latest Report submitted to the Prime Minister.

It said that once riots were controlled, cases against the guilty were not pursued with required degree of urgency and tenacity.

''Even more reprehensibly, often as a compromise following communal riots, serious cases against the accused are sought to be withdrawn from courts on extraneous considerations,'' it said.

It also expressed concern over the delay in the report of commissions of inquiry formed after comunal riots. The delay itself was bad and even the delayed recommendations were not implemented, which has led to perpetuation of the causes of public disorder, said the Report.

The Commission stressed that while all attention should be paid to controlling riots, removing the causes of communal violence was equally important.

''It has been observed that while the administration swings into action to suppress riots, sufficient and timely attention is not paid to address the causes leading to such riots.'' The panel quoting reports of various other commissions said conflict resoluion mechanism were largely ineffective and intelligence gathered was not accurate, timely and actionable.

It has also attacked the 'bad personnel policies' of the government--the poor choice of officials and short tenures because of which there is an inadequate grasp of local conditions.

Noting other administrative shortcomings, it has observed that the administration and the police fail to anticipate and read indicators which precipitated violence earlier. And even after the appearance of first signals, they are slow to react.

The administration and the police at times act in a partisan manner and at times there is failure of leadership, even total abdication on their part.

The Commission has also taken note of post-riot management deficiencies. It said that rehabilitation was often neglected, breeding resentment and anger. Moreover, officials are not held to account for their failures, thus perpetuating slackness and incompetence.

It has cited the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 and Gujarat riots of 2002 as the classic cases of gross dereliction of duty by the administration and their partisan attitude.

The commission said though success has been achieved in dealing with public order problems in several cases since independence, like those of linguistic agitations, naxalite violence in West Bengal and Kerala and terrorism in Punjab, many of them have become chronic in nature because the root causes of violence--peristenece misgovernance and failure to ensure a fair deal have not been addressed adequately.

UNI