Vijayawada, Oct 21 (IANS): Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday exhorted police to maintain law and order without any compromise.

At the Police Commemoration Day programme at the Indira Gandhi Municipal Corporation Stadium here, he recalled the sacrifices made by police and paid tributes to the martyrs.

The Chief Minister presented financial assistance to the families of police martyrs besides releasing a book on sacrifices made by them.

As many as 377 police personnel across the country have laid down their lives in the line of duty in the last one year, out of which 11 were from the state, he said.

Jagan Mohan Reddy claimed that Andhra Pradesh is the only state to introduce a weekly day-off system for police. However, it could not be implemented effectively due to the pandemic but will now be restored as the Covid cases are declining.

The state government, he said, has cleared the previous government's pending arrears, increased honorarium to home guards, and recruited 16,000 women police. Massive recruitment will be undertaken to fill vacancies in the department, he added.

The police has sanctioned Rs 5 lakh each to families of police personnel who succumbed to Covid, and the government has sanctioned a matching grant of Rs 5 lakh and immediately handed the Rs 10 lakh cheque to the next of the kin.

Reddy said that he has directed the officials to immediately provide jobs to family members of the deceased police personnel on compassionate grounds by November 30.

Home Minister Mekathoti Sucharitha, Endowments Minister Vellampalli Srinivas, Civil Supplies Minister Kodali Venkateswara Rao, Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma, DGP Gautam Sawang and others were present on the occasion.