HYDERABAD: The attempt to transfer the deputy
superintendent of police (DSP), who is in charge of
Sathya Sai Baba’s security at Prasanthi Nilayam in
Puttaparthi, is snowballing into a controversy.
Members of the Sathya Sai Central Trust, which
supervises the other services rendered by Baba, are
upset that animal husbandry minister Nimmala Kistappa
has used his clout to get DSP N Venkata Reddy
transferred.
The minister, it is said, persuaded home minister T
Devender Goud to move Venkat Reddy out of Puttaparthi to
settle a personal score with the officer.
However, Trust members consider this as an interference
in the security affairs of Puttaparthi and demanded that
Reddy be retained in his post.
The minister reportedly nursed a grouse against Venkata
Reddy as the latter does not make courtesy calls on
Kistappa whenever he visits Anantapur.
The minister’s efforts to get the officer transferred
failed when H J Dora was director-general of police. But
after Dora’s exit, Kistappa, with the collaboration of
an aide of the home minister, finally managed to get
Venkata Reddy transferred.
Angered over the transfer, Trust members took the matter
to chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu. The chief
minister, in turn instructed his officials to look into
the matter.
After the chief minister’s interference, Kistappa agreed
for retention of Venkata Reddy at Puttaparthi, but got
his wings clipped. The jurisdiction of the
sub-divisional police office at Puttaparthi encompasses
six adjoining villages having a superspeciality hospital
and the quarters of Sai Baba devotees working in the
institutions run by the Sathya Sai Central Trust.
But the minister managed to get the sub-divisional
police office disbanded leaving the deputy
superintendent of police to just look after the security
affairs at Puttaparthi.
The Sathya Sai Central Trust members made a
representation to the chief minister requesting him to
restore the sub-divisional police office at Puttaparthi
in view of the law and order problems outside the
Prashanti Nilayam.
They also complained to the chief minister that Devender
Goud’s aide who collaborated with Kistappa also nursed a
grouse against Venkata Reddy. The home minister’s aide
reportedly wanted admissions in schools run by the
Sathya Sai Central Trust, a favour the deputy
superintendent of police could not grant.
Kistappa reportedly used the services of this aggrieved
officer to clip the wings of Venkata Reddy. The Trust
members are disappointed that despite the chief
minister’s orders to restore to the DSP the powers of
his office, Kistappa has managed to have his way.
[
MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2002 02:00:37 AM ]