The strength of the Maoists has fallen drastically in the State — indicating that the welfare programmes being launched by the State government for the development of Agency areas are yielding good results, Director-General of Police (DGP) D. Gautam Sawang said.
“The Maoists are redundant as the government is taking measures to organise job fairs, provide employment and develop tribal areas. In all, 882 tribal youth were given training in various skill development programmes,” the DGP said while addressing reporters at a yearender press conference at the A.P. Police Headquarters on Tuesday. “There is a steep decline among the Maoist cadres, and the strength of the underground (UG) cadres has declined in the State,” Mr. Sawang said.
“The number of area committees in Andhra Odisha Border (AOB) region has reduced from six to four. Out of two Central Committee Members (CCMs) and five State Committee Members (SCMs) in the beginning of 2021, only one CCM and two SCMs are active in AOB now,” the DGP said.
Six Maoists, including two Divisional Committee Members, one Area Committee Member and two party members, were killed in exchanges of fire. Police seized eight weapons, including an AK-47, he said. Police arrested four UG cadre Maoists, including one ACM, three party members and 43 militia members. Thirteen cadres surrendered, including five militia members in 2021, Mr. Sawang said.
Speaking on the crime scenario, Mr. Sawang said that 1,27,127 FIRs have been registered in the State, of which 40,404 complaints were received through Spandana programmes.
About 90.2% of the cases were chargesheeted, and the investigation compliance rate was 92.27% (the national average was 40%) while the conviction rate stood at 75.09%. In all, 318 ‘Zero FIRs’ were registered, 1,551 cyber bullying sheets were opened and 34, 037 children rescued under ‘Operation Muskaan’, he said. As many as 2.77 lakh sexual offenders, involved in various cases in the State, were mapped. The department will train 20,000 police personnel by 2022 to deal with cybercrimes and a cybercrime reporting portal is being developed, the DGP explained.
There was a rise in cognisable crime in urban areas including Tirupati Urban district (58%), West Godavari (42%), Visakhapatnam Police Commissionerate (36%), Vijayawada Police Commissionerate (3%)0 and Guntur Urban district (24%).
Rise in crimes against women
The DGP said that crimes against women accounted for 21% of the total cases registered ths year, which was 13% in 2020. Property offences accounted for 15% of the total cases (up from 6% last year), and bodily offences accounted for 6% (7% in 2020). There was a decline in cybercrime cases at 18% of the total cases registered; this number stood at 27% last year.
“Very soon, all 1,000 police stations in Andhra Pradesh will be provided 100 MBPS internet facility and they will equipped with CCTV cameras. About 40% of stations have been equipped with CCTV cameras. A.P. Police has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Gujarat Forensic Science University and efforts are on to increase manpower and cyber capacity at all stations,” the police chief said.
Due to evidence-based investigation submitted in court, 25 life convictions were awarded to the accused and a couple of death penalties were given in grave cases.
Mr. Sawang said that 192 police personnel succumbed to the COVID-19 pandemic while 15 personnel were killed in accidents. The police department has disbursed ₹36.33 crore and ₹19.50 crore to the bereaved families as compensation respectively.
Additional DGs Ravi Shankar Ayyanar, Harish Kumar Gupta and Shakhabrata Bagchi, DIGs G. Pala Raju, S. Rajashekara Babu and Sunil Naik, and OSD (Police Welfare) P.V.S. Ramakrishna were present.
