Politicians on receiving end, lose grip over cops

Nellore: Telugu Desam (TD) leaders in the district are in a fix over the attitude of police officers and senior party leaders ever since the cricket betting scam broke out in the district.

Earlier, circle inspectors and sub-inspectors in the district were appointed only after the consent from the legislator or the concerned constituency in-charge.

This was done to ensure that the police officers turn a Nelson's eye to the nefarious activities such as cricket betting, transportation of red sanders and sand by the ruling party leaders and their followers.

In fact, the police officers had managed to live up to the expectations of their political bosses till last month. However, things took a positive turn with the new Superintendent of Police (SP), P.H.D. Ramakrishana, taking charge and cracking the whip on all illegal activities in the district.

The strictness of the SP forced the junior officers to stop entertaining the recommendations of TD leaders and their godfathers. Furthermore, the officers became defiant towards the politicos after the SP issued memos to 23 station house officers for various vocational lapses and dereliction of duties during the monthly crime meeting recently.

During the monthly mee-ting, the SP also dropped enough hints to the officers that they will face serious consequences if any forbidden activities are reported from their jurisdiction.

To the shock of the district TD leaders, the mini-sters and senior party le-aders also took a stand in favour of the SP and slammed the district leaders when they raised a hue and cry over the police's new-found love for law and order.

The senior leaders also noted that the police action against smugglers and bookies is imparting a positive image to the TD government.

A senior TD leader said the decision to send Nellore City and Gudur DSPs on vacancy reserve (VR) has further dented the bonhomie between the police and TD leaders since both the DSPs were known to be close to TD functionaries.

“The police will not bend any rules for the sake of our party leaders in the near future because of the tough stand taken by the higher authorities,” another TD leader noted.