Law and order in a shambles: Ramesh Chennithala

Kasargod: The frequent hartals in the state had exposed the failure of police and were making the lives of people miserable, said Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala. The BJP and the CPM were unleashing massive violence in Kerala, and the police were being like a “scarecrow”, said the Congress leader. “Law and order has gone out of hand,” he emphasised. Every day, there was a hartal in some part of Kerala, he said. Bombs were being hurled at party offices of the CPM and the BJP frequently, he added. “At Thiruvallur in Vadakara, CPM workers vandalised IUML offices without provocation,” he alleged. “Any police intelligence? No police to ensure law and order”, he said.

Chennithala said hartals could not be wished away in a democracy. “It should be a last resort. I cannot agree with the forceful imposition of hartal every other day,” he said. Speaking on the new liquor policy of the LDF government, he said it would turn Kerala into a “house of wine”. The people of Kerala, especially women, had accepted the UDF's policy to phase out the sale of liquor in the state. “But the policy reversal in its first year was the LDF government’s “return gift” to bar owners who had conspired to defeat the UDF,” he said. Chennithala pointed out that CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury had assured the people during the election campaign that none of the bars shut by the UDF government would be reopened.