Impose President's rule in Tamil Nadu: Jayalalitha

CHENNAI: AIADMK General Secretary and Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Monday demanded imposition of President rule to 'save the state' in the wake of naxalites looting arms from a police station in Dharmapuri district of the state.

In a statement here, Jayalalithaa said the looting of six rifles and walkie-talkie from the Adhiyamankottai police station on the busy Salem-Bangalore highway on February nine, vindicated that law and order had deteriorated in the state.

It was a matter of regret that a Sub-Inspector of police, two head constables and a constable who were present at the station, when the naxalites barged into the station and decamped with the rifles, did not offer any resistance, she said.
 
Alleging that Tamil Nadu had become an arms godown, she said the centre should take immediate steps to impose President rule in the state to save the people from terrorists and extremists and put an end to the increasing violence culture.

Before looting the police station, the naxalites appeared to had warned the policemen, Jayalalithaa said and wanted to know whether the local policemen had informed their senior officers about the warning and if so, why no action was taken.

She said the arms looting incident in Dharmapuri was not something new to the DMK government. In 1998, when the DMK was in power, forest brigand Veerappan and his associates tied eight police personnel at Vellitirupur police station in Erode district and looted nine rifles from the police station.
 
In the same year, naxalites tried to loot a bank at Pennagaram. A police driver was shot dead in the incident, she said.
 
Police was in a 'sad state affairs' in the DMK government and there had been an increased incident of violence. Security for the people had become a question mark following the infiltration of the proscribed Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), naxalites and Maoists, she said.