CM Vijay holds 3rd L&O meet; govt eyes 10,000 more cops

CHENNAI: Amid continuing incidents of murders, misconduct of ruling MLAs and prison break-ins in the State, Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay on Thursday chaired a high-level review meeting with the Chief Secretary and senior police officials to assess the law and order situation. This was the CM's third law-and-order meeting this week.

During the meeting, officials briefed the Chief Minister on various murder cases, their backgrounds, and the police action taken.

Speaking to reporters at the Secretariat after the meeting, Minister for Energy and Law R Nirmalkumar said the TVK-led government had remanded 19,000 history-sheeters since assuming office.

He said the government had begun recruiting 10,000 to 15,000 personnel to the police force to address the shortage. He added that the Chief Minister was directly monitoring administrative and policing matters.

The minister said around 6,700 Pocso cases had been registered, of which 2,800 related to incidents reported before May 10. Of the 3,229 accused identified in these cases, he said, all except 152 had been arrested.

He alleged that the DMK, the principal Opposition party, was creating a wrong impression about the government's handling of the law-and-order situation.

The government had intensified police patrolling across the State, including drone-based surveillance, he said.

Nirmalkumar further said that the government registered 9,600 drug-related cases and made around 14,000 arrests during the period under review. In comparison, he added that the previous regime registered 5,600 cases and made 8,500 arrests during the corresponding six-month period.

Chief Secretary M Sai Kumar, Home Secretary A Karthik, DGP Mahesh Kumar Agarwal and DGP (Prisons) K Shankar attended the review meeting.