Fadnavis should transfer home dept to full-timer Congress

Mumbai, Mar 31 (PTI) The Congress on Monday targeted the BJP-led Mahayuti government over the alleged gang war in a Beed jail, demanding that CM Devendra Fadnavis assign the Home department headed by him to a "full-time" home minister.
    Responding to reports of a scuffle between jail inmates, state Congress chief Harshvardhan Sapkal alleged that even jails are no longer safe due to the worsening law and order situation in the state.
    "Gang wars on the streets of Beed have reached the jail. What are the police and the home department doing? Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis should transfer the charge of the home department and appoint a full-time home minister," Sapkal stated.
    Earlier in the day, BJP MLA Suresh Dhas claimed Walmik Karad, lodged in Beed district jail in connection with the sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh murder case, was assaulted by members of a rival gang.
    Dhas said the alleged assault on Karad and co-accused Sudarshan Ghule was triggered by an argument over making a phone call from a room allotted to inmates to talk to their family members by the jail administration.
    A top prison official denied Dhas' assertion while acknowledging an altercation between two inmates under judicial custody when they assembled in the room allotted to prisoners to make phone calls.
    Sapkal said the overall law and order situation in Maharashtra, and Beed in particular, deteriorated drastically under the Mahayuti rule.
    "The crime has risen significantly. It appears that criminals are calling the shots while the rule of law is virtually absent. Gang wars on the streets of Beed have reached the jail involving Walmik Karad and Gitte gangs," he said.
    The Congress leader alleged that mafias involved in sand mining, land deals, wind energy, gambling, liquor, and coal have emerged under the government's patronage.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)