As the move by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to puts curbs on allegations against his Government and State Ministers gained momentum, the Opposition have cried foul describing it anti-democratic and dictatorial.
KCR has signed a file making it cognizable offence to make allegations against the Chief Minister and Ministers. If it comes in to effect the police will be empowered to book criminal cases suo moto against those making allegations even without any complaints. Similarly, the Government will also get the powers under IPC Sections 506 and 507 to take action against those indulging in criminal intimidation.
Till now, for taking action against these sections police was required to seek the approval of the court to register a case.
After the Chief Minister signed the file it was sent to the law department for scrutiny following which a formal Government order will be issued for its implementation.
The move with the far reaching implications has evoked a strong disapproval from the Opposition parties. State Congress president N Uttam Kumar Reddy described the move as a “suppression” of Opposition and said the Congress will continue to criticise the Government and expose its failures and scams.
“If telling lies to the voters become a punishable offence, the Chief Minister will spend rest of his life in jail”, Reddy said, adding the Chief Minister was resorting to such moves because he was afraid of Opposition exposing his failure in fulfilling the promises like jobs to youth and funds to the women’s self help groups.
Former Union Minister and senior BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya also criticised the move and warned that amending the two IPC Sections will affect the image of the Government.