Last year, 131 murders took place in Chennai and the total number of crimes recorded was 16,600. Chief Minister Karunanidhi told the Assembly that, compared to the statistics in other cities of our country, Chennai is in a very comfortable position. Chennai also recorded the lowest numbver of dacoities.

Of course, the Chief Minister was very cautious in his approach. He said the police was not complacent just because the crimes in the city are the lowest. They are being goaded and encouraged to do even better.

Towards maintaining and even improving the healthy trend in crime control, a separate police commissionerate is being set up for the Chennai suburbs. The huge population increase and consequent policing needs were taken into account while taking this decision. The population under the jurisdiction of the present Greater Chennai Police Commissionerate is over 1.2 crores. This is too high a population to manage, by any standard. The vehicle population and the nimber of industries in the suburbs have also increased manifold. people lived in the area under Apart from the increase in population and vehicles, many industries had to set shop in the suburbs.

The office of the proposed Commissioner would have jurisdiction over 38 police stations in the Ambattur, Madhavaram and St. Thomas Mount police districts. It would cater to about 45 lakh people. The Commissioner of Police would be in the rank of Inspector-General of Police and the team of officers would include nine Deputy Commissioners and two Additional Deputy Commissioners of Police. While the airport will come under the new commissionerate, the IT corridor along the Thoraipakkam, Rajiv Gandhi Salai (Old Mahabalipuram Road) and Neelankarai stretch would remain with the existing Commissionerate, as they come within the Adyar police district limits.

The new Commissionerate is a long felt need and one should be happy the Government has at last thought it wise to fulfill the same.