Andhra Pradesh government will strengthen police machinery in various districts to curtail crime rate and be prepared to meet any crisis situation.
As part of the plan, Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister China Rajappa has said armed police battalions in some areas and police sub-divisions in some other areas will be set up. In the new capital area, a special police sub-division was proposed at Tullur comprising Pedakurapadu, Tullur and Amaravati mandals for better coordination of law and order in the capital region.
Of the 13 districts in the State, only eight districts have armed battalions and West Godavari, Prakasam, Chittoor, Krishna and Srikakulam districts do not have any battalions and proposals had been sent to the Centre seeking approval for five battalions.
Centre gave permission for four battalions but sanctioned two and one of them would be set up at Vijayawada and another one would be allotted to one of the Rayalaseema districts. State was awaiting sanction of two more battalions, he said.
A special company of armed police would be set up for seven mandals of Khammam merged into Andhra Pradesh. As these mandals were close to the border of Chhattisgarh with Maoist influence, government decided to have a company of policemen stationed at one of these mandals for future requirements and the Centre also cleared the proposal. Meanwhile, government is also considering to set up a police sub-division for these seven mandals. But as three of these mandals are in West Godavari and four in East Godavari, technically issues may crop up, sources said. For the present mandals merged in East Godavari were brought under Rampachodavaram sub division and mandals merged in West Godavari under Jangareddygudem sub-division.
