Keeping her commitment that restoration of law and order would be her first priority in the state, chief minister Jayalalitha, hardly two hours after taking oath today, shunted out the Chennai police commissioner T. Rajendran and appointed J.K. Tripathy in his place as the new boss of Chennai police.

Tripathy, who enjoys the reputation of being a highly sincere officer, was brought to the coveted post from his assignment of Additional Director General of Police, Prisons. Rajendran will now hold the post vacated by Tripathy.

In her election campaign for the Assembly elections, Ms. Jayalalithaa had said several times that law and order situation in the capital city had deteriorated completely leading to lawlessness and asserted that her first priority would be restoration of law and order.