A day after resuming the power, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday held a detailed meeting with all the Divisional Commissioners, Inspectors General and Deputy Inspectors General of Police and the District Magistrates and Police Superintendents through videoconferencing. He told the officials that law and order was his top priority and there cannot be any compromise with the rule of law.
Thanking them for maintaining law and order during festivals despite pressing election responsibilities, the CM cautioned them that after election, crime incidents increase following instigations and attempts to create tension. “Nobody should be allowed to take law into his hands and action should be taken against such elements without delay. There will be no compromise on rule of law. Face is not important for me, performance is,” Nitish told the top officials and also issued guidelines to them during the review meeting.
The officials were asked to study the types of crimes in their region and also to find out if there had been link of the crime with other factors. The CM told them to regularly hold crime meetings at police station level and brief the subordinate police officials about the guidelines and directives.
The CM expressed concern over some recent post poll incidents at some places in which some lives were lost including one policeman at lalganj in Vaishali district. “This is a tradition to create disturbances and flare up the situation. Your duty is to check this and nip the trouble in the bud. This is our duty and responsibility to maintain peace and strengthen rule of law,” Nitish said and added that zero tolerance on atrocities on women and corruption should be maintained with renewed vigour.
Saying that DM and SP would be answerable to any communal incident in their district and stressed on response time in reaching the troubled spot, the CM said that the police and civil officials should reach the spot with force and intervene forcefully to check the spread of the incident. The trouble makers should be arrested immediately and action be taken against them without wasting time. Nitish asked the DMs and SPs to also hold talks with public representatives. “Act as per the rule but keep the public representatives in loop,” he directed them.
The review meeting was also attended by Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh, DGP P K Thakur and home secretary Sudhir Kumar Rakesh besides a battery of officials.
Meanwhile, Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan and senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi on Saturday visited lalganj where trouble erupted a few days back in which one cop was killed and one person died in police firing. Modi appealed to the CM to direct the top police officials to refrain from opening fire to control the mob. Terming lalganj incident failure of administration, he alleged that innocent people were being implicated in the case. “Instead of lathicharge or tear gass, police opened fire in lalganj and a 16-year-old youth Rakesh died sustaining bullet on his chest,” he alleged.