It’s a difficult time for cops this election season
About 1.55 lakh cases have already been booked in Andhra Pradesh
By : amar tejaswi
Update: 2014-04-21 07:13 GMT
Hyderabad: Candidates contesting the upcoming elections are giving the police a tough time. They have to obtain permissions from the police before holding rallies or road shows but there have been instances of them going ahead without permissions or obtaining permissions for one location but holding rallies elsewhere.
Several thousands of cases have also been filed under the Defacement of Property Act but violations still continue. Sunday morning saw a huge section of house walls in Secunderabad pasted with posters of the TRS and Telugu Desam seeking votes for their candidates.
According to the Chief Electoral Officer, about 1.55 lakh cases have already been booked under the Act in the state.
The rallies organised by candidates are also a major headache for the police considering the sheer numbers of those who are campaigning. Nearly 150 candidates are contesting in the GHMC limits for Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies, apart from Independents.
“It is a huge problem. There are so many candidates. But we are mainly focusing on avoiding clashes. We just want to ensure that if a candidate of a particular party is campaigning somewhere, the candidate of another party doesn’t reach there,” said Mr C.V. Anand, the Cyberabad police commissioner.
The police also said that violations of permissions for holding rallies and road shows took place daily. “Several such violations are taking place daily. Permissions are given at DCP or ACP levels but the bandobust officers wouldn’t really be aware where to restrict the rally. That could become a problem. Fortunately, nothing has happened so far,” a top police official said.
The Congress candidate from Secunderabad Cantonment, Mr Gajjela Kanthem, was arrested on Saturday for holding a rally without permission.
In other places as well, there were altercations between politicos and police when rallies were taken out at places other than those the police had permitted.