The Telangana Congress on Thursday insisted that the Election Commission must take over the police from the control of the ruling-TRS government in the state and said that the streets of Hyderabad had turned into slaughter houses, instead of 'Bangaru Telangana'.
Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan on Thursday, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) chief spokesperson Sravan Dasoju strongly condemned the murder of a man in broad day light in full public view at Attapur in Hyderabad on Wednesday.
“The brutality and fearlessness with which the murder was committed clearly shows that the fear for law and police has vanished from the streets of Telangana. A similar incident took place in broad day light in Erragadda a few days ago. Instead of protecting the lives of common people, Telangana police is busy in pleasing the bosses of the 'pink party’,” Sravan said.
Citing figures from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Sravan said that all types of crimes were on the rise in Telangana State.
“Caretaker Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao misused the force to harass political opponents. The Intelligence Department is misused to conduct 11 different elections surveys on the political situation and to know where TRS is strong or weak,” Sravan said.
Sravan demanded that the election commission must intervene and ensure that police is taken “out of the clutches of ruling TRS party or else there will be no fair and free elections in Telangana.”
Meanwhile on Thursday, the Election Commission said that the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) would come into effect immediately after premature dissolution of a state legislative assembly with caretaker government deprived of all powers to take policy decisions.
"The Commission has considered the matter of application of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) in the cases of premature dissolution of legislative assembly where a caretaker government has been asked to carry on the administration of that state or Union Territory for the purposes of free, fair, transparent, and robust electoral process.
"On careful consideration of the matter, keeping the observation of Supreme Court in S.R. Bommai and Others versus Union of India and Others (1994), that the caretaker government should merely carry on the day-to-day governance and desist from taking any major policy situation decision in view," the poll panel said in an order.
The direction has implications for Telangana where the TRS party led by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is continuing as a caretaker government after it dissolved the state assembly around nine months in advance.
Accepting the decision, the state Governor had dissolved the Assembly and asked the chief minister to continue in office till the elections.
The poll panel in its order said the provisions of the Part-VII of Model Code of Conduct would apply on the caretaker state government as well as on the central government in "so far as matters relating to that state are concerned".
"Consequently, neither the caretaker state government nor the central government shall announce any new schemes, projects, etc. in respect of that state or undertake any of the activities prohibited under the aforesaid Part-VII of the Model Code of Conduct," the EC said.
In another significant direction, the EC has asked the ministers and other functionaries of the caretaker government to desist from using official resources for any non-official purposes, combining of official visit with electioneering work, etc.
"(This) shall apply on all ministers and other authorities of the caretaker state government, the central government as well as the governments of other states," it said.
IANS inputs