Senior BJP leader and the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Ajay Bhatt slammed the Home Minister Pritam Singh for saying that the verification of all the residents, especially of those migrating from other States in search of jobs, is difficult, given the constraints involved.
Significantly, the Home Minister had said over phone to this correspondent on Tuesday evening that verification drive, though a continuous process, is an enormous task in view of the number involved. Police are doing it from time to time, he added.However, Bhatt said such nonchalance is helping the criminals to carry on with their designs. Things have reached such ominous proportions because the State Government is not as serious as it should be to stamp out crimes.
While, on one hand, the Chief Minister Harish Rawat stresses on vigorous verification drives, particularly involving the migrants, his Home Minister pleads his inability to motivate police to go for the drive in the right spirit.It exposes the inherent fault lines set deep in the thinking of the Government. This is dangerous for the State grappling with ghastly crimes befalling it one after another.
The BJP leader said that with the State Government proving to be a lame-duck one- flaunting good intentions for public consumption and crumbling when it comes to implementing them on the ground- the people of the State are feeling insecure.Uttarakhand is no longer a safe place as it earlier was. There was a time when the people did not find it necessary to have their doors locked while moving outside the locality. They thought it some kind of a sacrilege on the culture the State embodies.
But now the specter of criminals pouncing on them haunts them even when they are indoors. The most vulnerable are the women and the minors, Bhatt said.We are of the view that the slackness being shown by the State Government in having verification drives done regularly has landed the State in such dire straits.The State Government has neither firmed up a scheme for completing the verification of the residents, including outsiders, nor has it taken effective measures to curb crimes.
Dwelling on the recent stone pelting incident involving the Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat’s cavalcade, the BJP leader said though unfortunate, it had exposed the chinks in the functioning of the law-enforcing agencies and intelligence.Referring to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking the DGP in Guwahati to strengthen the intelligence cells to prevent crimes, Bhatt said the State Government should act on it too.
Critics opined that lack of verification of the Uttarakahnd residents, especially those coming from various parts of the State and from across the country, appear to be abetting crimes in the State.
The police should conduct verification drives across the State and along with them, the identities of the migrants should be verified and recorded at the bus terminals and railway stations or other important places by having policemen deployed in adequate numbers.