Coimbatore: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Mr. Edappadi K Palanisami inaugurated the ‘Police Museum’ on State Bank road near Coimbatore railway junction on Thursday. The museum, reportedly the first of its kind in the state, is situated in a renovated 150-year-old building formerly called the ‘Hamilton club’ and situated on a one acre plot of land.
The museum was dedicated to the public and students with a minimal entry fee, said the Chief Minister on the occasion.
Weapons like ‘pistols’ and ‘AK-47’, not only from the Tamil Nadu police and the para-military forces, but also from the Indian Army and Navy are exhibited here, he added.
The museum has displays of police department collections that were used a few decades ago, as well as latest devices like explosive detectors and weapons seized from serious offenders like slain forest brigand and sandalwood smuggler Veerappan and Malaiyoor Mambutiyaan.
An old cannon, a mini-submarine seized from the LTTE, a tank - T.55 that was used in the Kargil war and a sword that was gifted to the police department by former chief minister M.G. Ramachandran in 1982, are some of the highlights of the museum.
An air-conditioned theater with 50-seat capacity inside the museum with screens features the history of Tamil Nadu police along with several decade-old doc-uments kept in the museum.
Talking to the press, the Chief Minister said that steps would be taken to reduce value added tax (VAT) and provide a concession for fuel to night-halt flights at Coimbatore international airport as was done for Salem airport, where it has been reduced from 29 per cent to 1 per cent, in a bid to boost air connectivity to major Indian cities from here.
State Municipal Administration minister Mr. SP Velumani, Assembly Deputy Speaker Pollachi V. Jayaraman, MLAs Amman Arjun, Ettimadai Shanmugam, PRG Arun Kumar, O.K. Chin Raj, Tamil Nadu DGP, Mr. T.K. Rajendran, Coimbatore police commissioner Mr. K. Periaiah, West Zone IG Mr. Pari and Coimbatore SP Mr. Pa Moorthy were among those who took part in the modest function.
