The Centre on Wednesday night warned the Tamil Nadu government against recurrence of recent unfortunate events and asked it bring to book police officers responsible for committing high-handedness while arresting former chief minister M Karunanidhi and two Union ministers. "Government will keep a close watch over the manner in which the affairs of the state government of Tamil Nadu are carried in the near future," the home ministry said in a four-page warning to the state government as directed by the Union Cabinet on Tuesday night.
Accusing the Jayalalitha ministry of having "designedly flouted" the principles and conventions of responsible government, the Centre directed it to remedy the situation and exhibit through actions and statements that the state was being run strictly in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution. "The state government should also take suitable measures to show that it is not deliberately creating a situation of conflict with the Central government, leading thereby to a constitutional crisis at a future date," it said. The Centre sought the immediate release of DMK workers taken into custody in the wake of the arrest of Karunanidhi, ostensibly to maintain peace and order.
It asked the state government to immediately withdraw curbs on freedom of press and electronic media and proceed against those responsible for imposing such restrictions.
The Tamil Nadu police commissioner's notice to Sun TV should be revoked forthwith, the home ministry said. Bureau Report