MUMBAI, June 15: Chief Minister Manohar Joshi today claimed the law and order situation wasn't bad, notwithstanding the series of murders, dacoities, and revival of gangland wars in the metropolis and Navi Mumbai."It's true that the metropolis and Navi Mumbai witnessed a series of murders during the last three days. But I won't say there's complete collapse of the law and order machinery," Joshi said. He pointed out there's always scope for improvement, and his government is taking necessary steps to improve the situation."Apparently, some incidents of murders have taken place simultaneously, and it has therefore been alleged that the law-enforcing agencies were unable to tackle the situation. If we see crime figures for the last three years, since the alliance government came to power in March 1995, there has been a marked improvement," Joshi said.Compared to the performance of the erstwhile Congress government, the law and order situation is much better now. The number of major crimes were muchless under the Sena-BJP rule, he added.When asked if he would reshuffle senior officials to restore confidence of the people, Joshi said there was no such proposal. "We have efficient officials like Arvind Inamdar and R H Mendonca at the helm of affairs," he said.When his attention was drawn to the escape of contract killer Feroze Konkani from J J Hospital on May 6, Joshi admitted the incident was the biggest blot on the police force. "We're taking precautionary measures to ensure such incidents aren't repeated in future," he said. About the Srikrishna commission report on the December '92-January '93 riots, Joshi said it was likely to be tabled in the monsoon session of the state legislature.The Chief Minister said his government has decided to table the report along with the Action Taken Report, (ATR) though the specific date of tabling the report hasn't been decided so far.
