Law and order top priority, says Nitish

Ahead of festival season, chief minister Nitish Kumar on Friday asked district magistrates and divisional commissioners to maintain communal and social harmony at all costs, besides giving a new thrust to law and order while continuing zero-tolerance policy on the issue of corruption.

Ahead of festival season, chief minister Nitish Kumar on Friday asked district magistrates and divisional commissioners to maintain communal and social harmony at all costs, besides giving a new thrust to law and order while continuing zero-tolerance policy on the issue of corruption.

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Addressing district magistrates and divisional commissioners through video-conferencing, Kumar said, maintaining law and order and communal and social harmony should be the top agenda of district administration. “In case of communal disputes, the DMs should immediately rush to the spot and control the situation. In such cases, law and order tasks should not be left at the mercy of junior administrative officers,” he said.

During the five-hour video-conferencing, the chief minister said, the district magistrates now have to play a proactive role and showcase their administrative capability to maintain the prevailing atmosphere of peace in the state. “Identify the trouble spots during festivals and go ruthlessly after the trouble-mongers operating in the area,” Kumar said.

“Under no condition should crime be allowed to rear its ugly head in the state. You have to do everything under the current legal framework to ensure that law and order is maintained and criminals are caught and tried in a speedy manner,” he said.

Kumar also directed the DMs and SPs to resolve land-related disputes in their areas on a priority basis to avoid agrarian tension and maintain social harmony in rural areas. “Landrelated disputes are generally the root cause behind major incidents of violence and it creates social hatred and agrarian tensions in rural areas,” he said.

Reviewing the progress of speedy trials and cases under the crime control act, the chief minister asked the DMs and SPs to regularly attend the meeting of the district monitoring committee headed by district judges.