Hyderabad, Oct 7 (PTI) The Telangana government was laying more emphasis on protection of women and the police should put an extra effort to ensure it, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said on Wednesday.

Rao, who chaired a meeting to discuss law and order, women's safety, the drug menace and other issues, also voiced concern over crimes against Dalits and said police should deal with such issues with a humanitarian approach.

Also Read | Rajasthan Horror: 15-Year-Old Abducted, Gang-Raped in Barmer District.

Telangana, which is swiftly moving forward on the development path, is now number one state in the country as far as maintenance of Law and Order situation is concerned, an official release quoted Rao as saying.

He said it was unfortunate that incidents of atrocities against the Dalits were being reported from various parts of the country. KCR, as Rao is popularly known, said society should distance itself from such incidents and stressed the need for police to take measures to prevent any untoward incidents against the Dalits. As part of this, all the police personnel from the higher officials to the lower rung officials should become part of the society, they should perform what is called friendly policing giving respect to each and every citizen without any discrimination and there by enhance the spirit of policing, Rao said. The police should follow humanitarian values when the "weak and meek approach them for help and protection, he said.

Also Read | Delhi Restaurants to Be Allowed to Operate 24×7, Requirement of Tourism Licences for Running Restaurants to Be Removed: Arvind Kejriwal.

There was a need to control and eradicate the sale and supply of banned substances like ganja, which were harming society especially the young generation, the chief minister said, directing police to deal with an iron hand organised crimes. Instructing that stern action should be taken against those plundering the forest wealth, he said the civilian police should also join hands with the forest officers.

Rao suggested Director General of Police M Mahender Reddy to speed up the process of setting up 10 lakh CCTV cameras in the state capital.

He asked the police department to increase the use of Information Technology advancements to control crime and said the state-of-the-art Command Control system here would become operational very soon.

Home Minister Mahmood Ali, Forest Minister Indrakaran Reddy, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar and senior police and forest officials were among those who attended the meeting.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)