Hyderabad : Lodging a strong protest over the ‘partisan’ role of Hyderabad police, the Andhra Pradesh government Saturday urged the Centre to bring the city police under the neutral authority of the governor.
Chief Secretary I.Y.R. Krishna Rao met the union cabinet secretary and the union home secretary in Delhi to brief him about a series of incidents in which the Hyderabad police was biased in settling inter-governmental issues arising out of the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.
He urged them to operationalise section 8 of the A.P. Reorganization Act, 2014, by framing necessary rules so that the city police could come under the neutral authority of the governor, an official statement said here Saturday night.
In August, the Telangana government had refused to follow a direction from the union home ministry for handing over law and order in Hyderabad to E.S.L. Narasimhan, who is serving as the governor of both the states.
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government had termed the Centre’s move ‘unconstitutional’ and ‘fascist’.
Following the protest by the newly-created state, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the centre did not press the issue.
The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government in Andhra Pradesh has again raised the issue, citing some recent incidents.
The chief secretary said Hyderabad police on a flimsy complaint registered a case and arrested Commissioner of Labour and Additional Commissioner of Labour of Andhra Pradesh for transferring the share of Andhra Pradesh from the A.P. Building Construction Workers Welfare Fund to banks located in Vijayawada.
Krishna Rao told the central officials that he held a meeting with all the bankers wherein the police commissioner was also present and threatened to file criminal cases if the funds transferred to other places were not brought back.
The Andhra Pradesh government posted IAS officer B. Sam Bob as in-charge of the Director General of National Academy of Construction (NAC) but Hyderabad police prevented him from entering the office.
He complained that the Telangana government has taken over the institution, sealed workplaces of employees of Andhra origin and virtually necked them out of the office.
Andhra Pradesh complained that a similar situation was created at the National Institute of Tourism and Hospitality Management (NITHM) and the Telangana government took over the institution and appointed its own chairman.
He said the Telangana government unilaterally issued an order to take over the A.P. State Remote Application Centre (APSRAC) and sent out employees of Andhra origin and detailed an officer for transfer of certain deposits.