MAHARASHTRA: 5 days later, Dhule still under

MAHARASHTRA: 5 days later, Dhule still under curfewhttp://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articlelist/msid--2128838597,curpg-3.cms11 Oct 2008, 0405 hrs IST,Prafulla Marpakwar ,TNNMUMBAI: Days after communal clashes rocked the tribal Dhule districtin north Maharashtra, the area is still tense. However, no freshincidents of violence have been reported. According to reports,properties worth Rs 25 crore were completely razed to ashes in theviolence."We have clamped indefinite curfew in the entire district. There wereno fresh incidents of violence in the area on Thursday and Friday,"said Sanjay Chahande, Nashik divisional commissioner. Followingdirectives of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, not only chief ministerVilasrao Deshmukh, but even Union minister of state for homeSriprakash Jaiswal visited the trouble-torn district to see forthemselves the post-violence situation.On Tuesday, the situation was so tense that the state administrationwas planning to deploy the army. However, the proposal was abandonedfollowing strong opposition by the local police.Senior BJP leader Eknath Khadse has demanded a probe under theCommission of Enquiry Act. "I feel the probe should be conducted underthe Commission of Enquiry Act and pending the probe, both collector PLawangare and superintendent of police Sunil Kolhe should be asked toproceed on leave," Khadse said.Khadse was the first politician to alert both Lawangare and Kolhe onthe possibility of violence during a procession on October 5. Soonafter the process started, Khadse personally spoke to both thecollector and SP, saying more policemen should be deployed on theprocession route since he had specific information on the possibilityof violence. "Both assured me that adequate police bandobast will bedeployed, but unfortunately they did not take this informationseriously," Khadse said.Alleging that it was a complete failure of the law enforcing agencies,Khadse pointed out that the manner in which the districtadministration tackled the communal violence leads one to theconclusion that there was complete lack of coordination among thedistrict agencies. "Additional forces from neighbouring Jalgaondistrict rushed to Dhule, but they were sitting idle for well over 3hours as there were no instructions for them," Khadse said.A senior home department official on Friday admitted that there wascomplete collapse of the law and order situation in Dhule."We imposed curfew in the entire district, but for the first threedays, there were not enough officials to implement the prohibitoryorders. Later, it was implemented, but only in select areas, whichclearly reflected bias on the part of the police," the official said.