Appoint full-time DGP to restore l&O in Tamil Nadu: Palaniswami

CHENNAI: AIADMK general secretary and Leader of the Opposition Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Sunday accused the DMK government of presiding over a “complete collapse” of law and order in Tamil Nadu, urging the immediate appointment of a full-time Director General of Police in line with Supreme Court directions.

With a contempt plea pending before the Supreme Court over the State’s failure to appoint a full-time DGP, Palaniswami demanded that the government “free the police from political interference” and immediately fill the post.

In a statement, he alleged that the State had “slipped into a Jungle Raj” where public safety had deteriorated to such an extent that “from young girls to elderly women, no one feels secure stepping out of their homes”. He claimed that incidents of rape, molestation, kidnapping, murder and robbery had risen sharply, while the government remained “indifferent to the growing anarchy”.

Palaniswami charged the DMK with shielding party members accused of serious crimes and intimidating journalists who reported on corruption or criminal links within the ruling party. Referring to the kidney theft case, he contended that administrative negligence and poor legal handling had enabled a hospital under scrutiny to resume operations.

He said recent data painted “a grim picture” of the State’s safety scenario. Compensation of Rs 104 crore was handed over to 6,999 sexually molested girls, he claimed. This reflected not achievement but “administrative failure,” he said. In the past four months, he claimed, the State had witnessed 501 murders and 158 cases of sexual offences, he said, highlighting cases in Tiruvannamalai, Adyar and Coimbatore as examples of “unchecked criminal activity.”

Pointing to incidents in Chief Minister MK Stalin’s Kolathur constituency, where drug addicts allegedly attacked residents with knives, he criticised the police for “threatening people who shared CCTV evidence instead of pursuing offenders”.