UP to attend meet on better policing

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh has agreed to attend the inter-state coordination committee's meeting for better policing, slated to be held in the first week of August in Maharashtra.Maharashtra minister of state for home Kirpa Shanker, who was here on a day's visit on Tuesday, said that the twin objectives of this meeting was to ensure better coordination between police of different states to track down criminals spreading their tentacles beyond the boundaries of their native states.Besides Maharashtra and UP, other members of the coordination committee are Bihar, MP and Karnataka.In fact, Mumbai, being the capital of the economic activities in the country, has become a sought-after place by criminals and members of the underworld, admits Kirpa Shanker. The trend has shown a marked increase during the last one decade. It is attributed mainly to political uncertainty which has adversely affected development process and paved way for 'mediation culture', which is promoted and practiced by criminals and politicians alike for their vested interests.In UP, like in Mumbai, gang wars are becoming frequent. And the state has attained a dubious distinction of supplying criminals from here to Mumbai, confides Kirpa Shanker, who himself hails from Azamgarh. Ironically, Azamgarh is one of the main recruiting grounds for Mumbai mafia, who prefer to have their foot soldiers from among the growing army of lumpen elements.This holds trues about other states, too, according to Kirpa Shanker. The coordination committee aims to have a joint strategy to control mafia in an effective way.The Maharashtra minister hailed UP for its decision to ban paan masala and gutkha and said that it should be enforced stringently, as it was being done in his state.Kirpa Shanker, who also holds the charge of drug and food control department, said that a task force consisting of police and drug and food control officials had been set up at district level in Maharashtra to enforce the ban on pan masala and gutkha. He also appealed to their manufacturers not to oppose the ban in the larger interest of the people.