The Hindu : Law and order well maintained: CM

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 29, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu

Law and order well maintained: CM

By Our Special Correspondent

Chennai April 28. The Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, today declared in the Assembly that the law and order situation in Tamil Nadu was being maintained "very well" compared to any State.

As the Opposition turned its critical focus on two recent `double murders', she asserted that Tamil Nadu was peaceful, considering the situation prevailing in Andhra Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Assam.

Highlighting her "courage and confidence" in heading the Police department, Ms. Jayalalithaa said that in a majority of the States, the Chief Ministers did not keep the Home portfolio themselves because of the "very bad" law and order situation and high occurrence of murder and burglaries. They vested the portfolio with other Ministers and pass on the responsibility of replying to questions on law and order.

But, she was "courageously" holding the Home portfolio. "The Opposition members, who spoke today, said they were raising the question because I head the Police department. I am holding the portolio because I am confident that the law and order can be maintained well," Ms. Jayalalithaa asserted, amid thumping of desks by Treasury Benches. She went on to appeal to the Opposition MLAs not to "belittle" the Police department, and cause heartburns and mental fatigue in the force.

Stating that there was no crime-free State in India, she insisted that only the crime rate and crime detection rate should be taken up for assessment, because murders and burglaries could not be totally eliminated, thanks to human tendencies. And in Tamil Nadu, the crime detection rate improved last year.

Rejecting the Opposition charge that the State was in the grip of panic following the double murders, she asserted, "there is no tension whatsoever".

As for the April 20 double murder at Vellore, where a bank official's 35-year-old wife and 12-year-old son were found strangulated with a nylon rope, Ms. Jayalalithaa said two special teams were probing the links the culprits had in other States and 12 suspects were interrogated.

On the murder of an elderly couple in Coimbatore on April 21, Ms. Jayalalithaa said a special team arrested one, Kanagaraj, who was a friend of a painter, Arokiyasamy, who had whitewashed the house.

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