Walkout in Kerala assembly over rising crimes

Thiruvanthapuram, Feb 28: The Congress-led opposition in the Kerala assembly walked out on Tuesday in protest against rising crimes in the state. The walkout came as Speaker P. Sreeramakrishn disallowed leave for an adjournment motion moved by former Home Minister and Congress leader Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishn.

Before leading the walkout, Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala said that peace and tranquility in Kerala was destroyed with Chief Minister Pirayi Vijayan losing his grip over the state police.

He said the nine-month-old Pirayi Vijayan-led Left government had converted Kerala — God’s own country — into goons’ own country.

“(At least) 18 murders have taken place, 1,085 rape cases, 620 children have been attacked and 2,690 cases of attack on women have been registered after you (Vijayan took over in May last year),” Chennithala said. The Congress leader said there was a spurt in crimil activities and goons were having a free run as Vijayan had failed in handling the police. He said: “When I was heading the home department, we had a special programme ‘Operation Sureksha’ and ‘Operation Kubera’, where goons were targeted and taken into custody.

“It’s most unfortute that you have not taken forward the programme just because it was launched by us... God’s own country has now become goons’ own country,” said Chennithala. Radhakrishn said a comparison between the present and then Congress government revealed that under Vijayan there were 6,100 more crime related cases.

According to him, even the Director General of Police T. P. Senkumar fears for his life. “There is an overall drop in the law and order situation in the state as there has been an increase in crimes, besides cases of moral policing have also gone up,” said Radhakrishn. (IANS)