Agartala, Jan 10 (IANS): The Tripura government would soon appoint 1,100 "Gram Sevak" (village volunteers) to make policing pro-active and improve the police-people relations to curb crime, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb said here on Thursday.

Addressing the 'Police Week Parade', he said the volunteers would do the police-people coordination. The volunteers-police would jointly deal with the crime, said Deb, who also holds the home portfolio.

He asked the police officers to have frequent interactions with important people of their areas to get feedback and suggestion.

Highlighting the Bharatiya Janata Party-led governemnt's achievements in the past 20 months, he said in line with the plan to make Tripura a drug-free state, the law enforcing agencies had registered 987 drug cases and arrested 4,992 peddlers.

"Union Home Minister Amit Shah at the recent meeting of the North Eastern Council in Guwahati spoke about making the northeast a drug-free region," he said.

Stating that the crime against women has come down by 10 per cent in the 20 months, Deb said swift punishment was helping.

"Within three-five days, the accused of crime against women are being arrested. The police administration is free from political interference. My government wants to make the Tripura Police the best police force in India. Earlier, the police didn't register cases due to political interference," the Chief Minister said.

He also inaugurated a gallery at the Ujjayanta Palace State Museum to showcase the policing in the several centuries of princely rule in Tripura and its transformation, besides sacrifice of the police personnel, during the decades of terrorism.

The Chief Minister also asked policemen to donate bloods voluntarily to help ailing people. On the occasion, 101 cops and Tripura State Rifles troopers donated blood.