The Centre continued to accelerate the process of division of Andhra Pradesh when it constituted on Monday an eight-member Task Force headed by K. Vijay Kumar, senior security advisor to the Home Ministry, to advise it on handling the post-bifurcation law and order situation.
The committee, considered a crucial to the Centre’s plans, is mandated to prepare “a strategy paper to deal with the security situation evolving due to the bifurcation of AP and formation of Telangana.”
This is the third such committee announced by the Centre after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) announced on July 30 its decision in favour of division of AP. While the Antony Committee was a non-starter, the Group of Ministers has restricted its task to receiving reports through emails from a cross-section of society.
The Task Force is thus expected to go into the nitty-gritty of the bifurcation issue with special focus on security aspects. It is understood that the constitution of the Task Force is the outcome of the briefings to the Centre by Governor E. S. L.Narasimhan recently about the prevailing political situation. The agitation in Seemandhra against division paralysed normal life in the region for nearly 75 days while government employees struck work for two months.
The Centre’s fears about law and order arise from Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy’s opposition to the division, the employees’ threat to resume the strike and the continuing protests in Seemandhra for the 89 day today.
CS informed
It sent a communiqué to the Chief Secretary P. K. Mohanty informing him about the constitution of the Task Force whose members include Rajeev Sharma, Additional Secretary (Naxal Management), Ministry of Home Affairs, N. R. Wasan, Additional DG, NIA, and J. V. Ramudu, DGP (Operations) and in-charge of Octopus and Greyhounds.
The Task Force includes Director General of ASCI S.K. Rao and retired IAS officer B.V. Papa Rao.
Simultaneously, the Centre sent a list of former Directors-General of Police and retired bureaucrats who will be members of the Consultative Committee.
They have been co-opted on the basis of their “independent and objective thinking capabilities, uncoloured by any regional feelings.”
They are: former DGPs H.J. Dora and K. Aravinda Rao, C. Anjaneya Reddy, A.K. Mohanty, present DGP B. Prasada Rao, Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad (in his official capacity), Director of AP Police Academy, Malakondaiah, IPS officer E. Damodar, IGP, CRPF N.R.K. Reddy.
The first meeting of the Task Force would be held at Centre for Good Governance at 11 a.m. on Tuesday and will meet again on Wednesday and Thursday.
The Task Force would interact with the consultative members on law and order issues with focus on the likely situation in Hyderabad, which would be the common capital for 10 years.
