VIJAYAWADA: As the famous Sankranti festival approaches, the NTR district police have intensified surveillance in rural areas and city outskirts, closely monitoring the activities of rooster tamers, rooster knife makers, gamblers, punters, farmers, and others leasing out their land for setting up cockfight arenas under the guise of Sankranti Sambaralu.
Additionally, Krishna district police have initiated a similar exercise, collecting details of previous offenders, locations where cockfights were organised in past years, and problematic villages to prevent untoward incidents during the three-day Sankranti festivities.
The Sankranti festival will be celebrated from January 14 to 16 in the State. As part of enforcement, teams comprising local police, task force, and Special Enforcement Bureau (SEB) will identify individuals with a criminal background and problematic locations and villages. Subsequently, villagers will undergo counselling to discourage engagement in anti-social activities such as gambling and banned cockfights under the guise of festival celebrations.
So far, police officials have identified 50 problematic villages in the district, with most of them located under Mylavaram, Kanchikacherla, and Jaggayyapet mandals. Local police will conduct counselling and awareness sessions, urging villagers to refrain from participating in and organising cockfights during the festivities.
NTR district CP Kanthi Rana Tata emphasised that stringent action would be taken against those violating rules and High Court directions on cockfights, urging the public to celebrate the festival traditionally. Meanwhile, police officials and various organisations plan to organise outdoor games such as kabaddi, volleyball, cricket, kho-kho, and rangoli competitions in problematic villages during the festival to divert youth and villagers from participating in cockfights and gambling.
On the other hand, police are gearing up for enforcement drives to control the manufacturing of illicit distilled liquor and illegal liquor sales in the villages. It is reported that police have started binding over cockfight organisers, punters, gamblers, and habitual offenders with connections to the banned sport in the district, against whom cases were filed in the past.