PUDUCHERRY: A bar looted and ransacked. Commuters waiting at a bus-stop robbed at knifepoint. Protection money rackets. And all those ‘rowdies’. Puducherry is no longer the scenic, laidback tourist destination it once was, and Chief Minister N Rangasamy is the man in the middle. Nine months after his triumphant return to power, Rangasamy faces charges of misgovernance, primarily on the law and order front, and over the disbursement of relief in the aftermath of Cyclone Thane that struck on New Year’s eve.Fear is in the air of this former French colony; the view on the street is that anti-social elements don’t bother about the law or its enforcers. Crude bombs have made a comeback as the weapon of choice, largely between rival gangs of young men. The Opposition alleges a police-criminal nexus, accusing Rangasamy of not being serious on stern action against criminals. “People are afraid to report crime as the information reaches criminals as soon as the complainant reaches the police station. The black sheep in police have increased to the extent that people can no longer depend on them,” says Rajya Sabha member and senior Congress leader P Kannan.That a CID inquiry was recently ordered against police personnel on an allegation made by some thieves that the men in khaki had kept ornaments recovered from them has only strengthened the perceived rot in the force. The government’s reluctance to book repeat offenders under the Goondas Act—under which an accused may not get bail for a year—is being attributed to the escalation in crime. As many as nine cases fit for booking under Goondas Act have been forwarded by to the government for approval, but remain pending before the district magistrate. Kannan has announced an agitation on February 23 to press the government on using the Act. “The Chief Minister's public statement on his reluctance to use Goondas Act has sent out a wrong signal to criminals,” he says. Pointing out that when five such cases were booked prior to Assembly elections, the crime rate in the Union Territory came down to almost nil during the three-month election period of elections, AIADMK Secretary and MLA A Anbazhagan too says the act should be used. The disbursement of Cyclone Thane relief is the other stick Rangasamy is being beaten with. The disbursement of relief began one-and-a-half months after the disaster. Not only was the administration caught unprepared but there was a general lack of coordination. The Chief Minister did not constitute a disaster management committee, an oversight sharply criticised by AIADMK organising secretary and former Tamil Nadu speaker P H Pandiyan. Rangasamy had planned to raise `2,113.62 crore as revenue in the current financial year but he failed to revise taxes or introduce new ones. He waited for the Centre’s announcement of interim relief of `125 crore before he announced his relief of `159 crore on January 11.
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