Vijayawada, Oct 21 : Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has exhorted the police to maintain law and order without any compromise and protect women, children and aged at all times.

The Chief Minister who attended Police Commemoration Day celebrations at the Indira Gandhi Municipal Corporation (IGMC) Stadium here on Thursday, recalled the sacrifices made by police, paid tributes to the martyrs, gave financial assistance to the families of police martyrs besides releasing a book written on the sacrifices made by police.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Reddy has reminded the great services of police who sacrificed their lives for the country.

He said that 377 police personnel had laid their lives down in line of duty in the last one year across the country, of which, 11 are from Andhra Pradesh and paid rich tributes to all of them.

The Chief Minister said Andhra Pradesh is the only state which has introduced a weekly day-off system for the police to give them rest enabling them to function more efficiently.

It could not be implemented effectively due to COVID pandemic but will now take place in wake of the declining trend of the pandemic.

Mr Reddy said that the state government had cleared the previous government’s pending arrears of police department, increased honorarium to home guards, recruited 16,000 women police and added that massive recruitment would be done to fill vacancies in the department.

The Chief Minister said that the police department has sanctioned Rs 5 lakh each to families of police personnel who died due to COVID, and the government has sanctioned a matching grant of Rs 5 lakh and handed over the Rs 10 lakh cheque to the next of kin of the personnel.

He said that he has directed the officials to immediately provide jobs to a family member of the deceased police and employees due to COVID, on compassionate grounds and complete the process by November 30.

Mr Reddy said the duties of the police department have been extended from crime investigation to cybercrime investigation and added that crimes are taking new trends.

Home Minister Mekathoti Sucharitha, Ministers Vellampalli Srinivas, Kodali Venkateswara Rao, Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma and DGP Goutam Sawang were among those who were present.(UNI)