Wigneswaran seeks police powers to fight sword gangs in North

As the Police struggle to maintain law and order in the North amidst increasing incidents of sword gangs terrorising the region, Chief Minister C. V. Wigneswaran has proposed that if the Northern Provincial Council ( NPC) is given police powers, he can bring the situation under control within two months.

Responding to media queries on the current situation in the North, the Chief Minister claimed that if adequate Tamil speaking personnel were deployed in the police service under the command structure of the NPC for provincial civil security purposes, violent sword groups could be controlled with the support of the people and effective community policing strategies.

He said that in the North, most of the police personnel were from the South, they were very more concerned about their own security than maintaining law and order in the region. They also lacked community support because of communications problems.

However, the NPC’s Opposition Leader S. Thavarasa criticised the Chief Minister’s call for police powers to be vested in the Provincial Council. He said the council had a poor track record in exercising powers on subjects already devolved to the council in terms of the 13th Amendment.

He cited an old Tamil proverb which says “a person who cannot catch the cock- bird on the roof top of the house, is dreaming of catching the moon.”