Hyderabad, Dec 29 (IANS) With an increasing number of daily religious and political processions in Hyderabad taking a toll on policing, the law and order agency Thursday decided to reroute the annual parades and deny permission for starting new ones.

Hyderabad Police Commissioner A.K. Khan appealed to religious groups and political parties to help reduce such events.

“We have decided not to give permission for any new procession and allow the existing annual processions to take new routes,” he said.

About 10-15 religious processions are taken out in the communally sensitive Hyderabad every day and police face a daunting task of making security arrangements.

Khan told reporters that there was an urgent need for all religious heads, groups and political parties to come together and find a solution to ease the pressure on the city police.

During the last five to six years, the number of processions and programmes has doubled and their magnitude has also grown, he said.

“This is not good for city. As we are deploying all resources for security arrangements for the processions, it is affecting crime control, enforcement work, crime investigations and traffic management,” he said.

“All sections of society should sit together and think if these processions are really required,” added the police chief.

The major processions which the city witnesses every year include Ganesha immersion, Bonalu, Muharram, Hanuman Jayanthi and Milad-un-Nabi.

For some of these processions, the 10,000-strong police force has to requisition troopers from other parts of the state.

There are already 3,000 vacancies in the city police organisation and every month 40-50 policemen are retiring.

As part of their efforts for technology upgradation, Khan said 3,000 surveillance cameras would be installed in Hyderabad and Cyberabad in 2012 for crowd control and better traffic management.

Of these, nearly 2,000 cameras would be installed in Hyderabad, he said.