Surat Police Commissioner Maniram has been shunted to the State Crime Record Bureau here as Inspector General of Police, and his post has been downgraded.

Minister of State for Home Haren Pandya conceded on Monday that the ``law and order situation in Surat is not satisfactory and that a complete overhauling of the police set-up in the diamond city is expected any day''.

Maniram has been replaced with Vadodara Police Commissioner Kuldip Sharma. Secretary, Home, J Mahapatra has been asked to take over as the Vadodara Police Commissioner. Additional Director General of Police S Banerjee, State Crime Record Bureau, has been appointed Additiional DGP, Law and Order.

Perturbed over the corporator's murder, Pandya told reporters, ``The government has taken the incident very seriously and as achallenge''. He alleged that Maniram had failed to check crimes in Surat, including the recent rape and murder of two schoolgirls.

He said a six-member team of the State Crime Branch, led by Special IGP H R Gehlot, was sent to Surat to guide and assist the local Crime Branch investigating the Nitaben muder. Pandya also blamed ``migrant criminals''-- including those who had sneaked in from Mumbai--for the spurt in crime.

Pandya said the Rapid Action Response Cell, set up by the Home Department on December 14, would monitor the movement of migrant criminals and take preventive measures in South Gujarat. The Cell, headed by Surat Range IGP O P Mathur and comprising DSPs of four districts in the region, will mount an effective inter-district co-ordination with police to check crime.

He said certain builders and municipal officials suspected to have been involved in the Nitaben murder were being called by the police for questioning.

Meanwhile, Water Supply Minister Narottam Patel, who hails from Surat,warned his Government against the rising crime graph in Surat, saying local BJP leaders and workers and the general public were upset over the deteriorating law and order situation.

Patel, who is in charge of Surat, alleged that the police had miserably failed to detect and control crime. ``The party workers and people of Surat want a result-oriented police force to check crime. I have drawn the attention of both Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel and Haren Pandya to this'', he told reporters.

Patel said he was gheraoed and heckled by a mob when he visited Nitaben's house in Rander, and said, ``The people were expressing their anger against the tardy reaction by police to the news of the brutal murder''. He said transfers or suspension of policemen would not serve any purpose and called for drastic action to check crime.