Nagpur police doing good job: Dist guardian minister

Nagpur: A day after BJP state vice-president Chitra Wagh criticized Nagpur city police alleging inaction over two recent crime-related incidents, district guardian minister Nitin Raut defended the latter.
“The Nagpur city police are doing a great job. The crime rate of Nagpur city has come down significantly during the current regime of MVA-led state government, as compared to the past government,” he said, while addressing a press conference at Police Gymkhana on Saturday.
During her visit to the city on Friday, Wagh had said reports of gang rape of a girl and a suicide following alleged physical assault by city police clearly show that the crime situation in the city is grim.
Regarding Raut’s suicide, the district guardian minister said that he was a habitual fake caller and an alcoholic. As for the gang rape, he said that the survivor was mentally challenged and that normally, such patients are unable to realize their exploitation, thus becoming prone to such crimes.
“Even in the recent murder of a youth, his friends were the killers. In all these cases, one cannot tag the city as the crime capital,” said Raut.
The minister said the crime detection rate of the city has increased by almost 5%. “In seven months of this calendar year, the city police recorded 70% detection, while previously it was 65%,” he said.
He, however, admitted that behavioural changes are needed among the beat patrolling staff and directives have been given to the police commissioner Amitesh Kumar to ensure that they (cops) behave politely.
“Nagpur city can become crime-free if there is good coordination between citizens and cops,” the minister pointed out.
To a query, Raut admitted that despite transfers, cops are reluctant to join their postings in Nagpur city police. As a result, many important posts like joint commissioner of police, 11 assistant commissioners of police and several posts of police sub-inspectors were lying vacant for more than a year. He claimed that all posts would be filled within a fortnight.
On preparations for the projected third wave of coronavirus, the district guardian minister said that the city needs to be well-prepared for the coming three months as festival season too will start soon.
"The third wave has already hit Nashik with the detection of patients infected with the Delta plus variant. The virus may hit the city too, anytime. Even though the district has achieved zero death rate with single-digit Covid-19 cases, we need to be careful,” he said.
Raut, however, refused to comment on why restaurants and hotels were not being allowed to do business.