The Centre today directed all states to firmly deal with incidents of communal violence and warned that communal polarisation may vitiate the country's social fabric ahead of general elections.
Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth told chief secretaries and DGPs of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir to fully gear up to check incidents of communal violence by strengthening intelligence gathering mechanism and preventive arrests.
The meeting was convened following a directive of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was "very concerned" over the spurt of communal violence in last few months, official sources said.
The country saw 451 incidents of communal violence till August 31, whereas there were 410 such incidents in 2012.
Seth, accompanied by Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami and other senior central officers, conveyed to the chief secretaries and DGPs that there were reports of communal polarisation in some parts and that needed to be checked immediately else it may vitiate country's social fabric, sources said.
The top officials of the central government also warned that such incidents may increase in coming days and expected to take place in the run up to the 2014 general elections.
The states were asked to analyse the reasons of such violence, prepare road-map how to deal them and take remedial steps so that in future no petty incident takes communal colour, as witnessed in the past, sources said.
