Vijayawada: District, mandal-level committees formed

Vijayawada: Krishna District Collector Md Imtiaz said district and mandal-level committees formed with the officials and the representatives of various religious organisations would strive for the protection of communal harmony in the district.

The Collector along with Commissioner of Police B Srinivasulu, Krishna District SP M Ravindranath Babu and Joint Collector M Madhavi Latha convened the first district-level meeting on Saturday with the representatives of various religious organisations at the camp office.

Speaking on the occasion, the Collector said the State government has recently released orders for the formation of the district-level committee with the District Collector as chairman, commissioner of police, Vijayawada and the superintendent of police, Krishna as the vice-chairmen. Officials of the Endowments and Revenue departments, and members of various religious organisations will be the members of the district-level committee. Imtiaz said the main objective of the committee is to protect the communal harmony in case any problem arises.

He said the committee would restore peace and normalcy in case any problem arises. He further said the district-level committee will prepare an action plan to prevent untoward incidents that may arise due to past incidents of disputes and clashes in the district.

He said the committee will also take steps to create communal harmony in schools and colleges by forming teams and educating the children on the importance of communal harmony. He informed that 2,500 CC cameras were arranged at various places of worship and 1,000 village protection committees were formed to ensure protection of idols and prevention of any untoward incidents.

Vijayawada Police Commissioner B Srinivasulu said the city police had taken elaborate measures to maintain communal harmony in the city and instructions were given to install CC cameras at temples, churches and mosques.

He warned that stern action would be taken if religious issues are politicised. He said peace committees were formed under the limits of all police stations in the police commissionerate. Krishna District SP M Ravindranath Babu said it is the responsibility of all sections of people to maintain communal harmony and all have to fight collectively against the anti-social elements.

He said police are included in all village protection committees. Representatives of religious organisations Dr K Joseph, Atluri Sarma, Syed Mohammed Saleem, Har Mohinder Singh and others participated in the meeting.