Amid the arrests of YSRCP Congress Party’s social media activists in Andhra Pradesh, party president and former Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy warned the police to stick to the rule book and not to buckle under pressure to dance to the tunes of ruling party.
He alleged that the Chandrababu Naidu-led coalition government has failed on all fronts and that it is pushing the state into a dark age.
Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, he said, the law and order situation has worsened, and social media activists are being harassed and picked up without following the due procedure.
Citing the Supreme Court ruling, the former Chief Minister said notices first should be given, and then magistrate permission should be taken and only after obtaining the warranty a person should be arrested.
But throwing all procedure to winds the police have been picking of people for questioning, detaining them in policing stations and even arresting family members if the person facing the charges is not available, he said adding that the party had given phone numbers for legal aid.
Jagan Mohan Reddy said police should safeguard the dignity and decorum of their uniform as political power is not permanent and if they continue to do the same, the legal cell of the party will take up the issue and “all erring officials will have to face the music, when we come back to power”.
“We will track down every officer and take action. We will also lodge private complaints against them,” he said.
The YSRCP chief said police have been detaining social media activists for questioning the corrupt practices of the government during the recent flood in Vijayawada and other areas of irregularities.
What they posted was not new, it was all reported in the media about the irregularities in flood relief and rescue operations in Vijayawada and police have hounded them on the directions of political bosses, he said.
He alleged that illegal detentions have become order of the day without following the due procedure and police have no right to bring family members to the police station. They were picked from Tenali, Chilakaruripeta, Tadepalle, Markapuram, Pendyala, Guntur, Tiruvur, Hyderabad and other places. In all, 101 cases were booked mocking the Supreme Court ruling.
“On the other hand, TDP official website had posted fake news about my mother when her car broke down and when she wrote a letter as rejoinder they even dubbed it as fake, now what action did police take against them,” he asked. Such type of character assassination is going one and if police look the other way, they will be answerable in the coming days.
“I tell the police and the DGP not to degrade and belittle themselves but to work as per law and do not yield to pressure,” he said.
Highlighting the ‘miserable’ failure of the government in maintaining law and order, he said, there were 91 cases of atrocities on women and minors in the last five months in Tenali, Badvel, Srikakulam, Hindupur, Anakapalle and other places where atrocities were committed on innocent minor girls and women and in most cases the perpetrators were ruling party supporters.
No case was registered and the culprits are moving freely, he said. In Pithapuram, the constituency of Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, a TDP councilor’s husband had committed atrocity on Dalit women at a dump yard and she was rescued by a rag-picker and no case was booked. In Tirupati, the family of victim was threatened to give statements to suit them.
Jagan Mohan Reddy alleged that the government has failed on all fronts and failed. Our reforms in education, medical and farming sectors were brought to naught. The Super Six has been a big flop, he said. On the education front, it has not paid the fee reimbursement for three quarters and Vasathi Deevena, Goru Mudda and other schemes were stopped.
On the medical front, Aargyasri bills were not paid and recruitment of doctors has been stopped. Crop insurance and RBKs were watered down and middlemen entered the scene and it would be a replay of 2014. Social welfare pensions were cut down, and no new registrations were undertaken, which shows the sincerity of the government and its lack of transparency, he said.