Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today sanctioned Rs 33.36 crore towards modernisation of over 30 small and large check-posts of the Revenue Department across the State as part of her government's efforts to spruce up prevention of smuggling, hoarding and tax evasion.

The funds would be utilised towards creation of new vacancies, purchase of new vehicles and equipment used to record the registration numbers of vehicles crossing the check-posts and inverters and UPS systems, a government release said.

The modernisation of 38 check-posts would help in handling more number of vehicles in lesser time, reducing their waiting period, timely transportation of goods and 'total prevention of tax evasion,' the release added.

Jayalalithaa has been doing a lot to modernise the State government's various departments ever since she assumed charge as the Chief Minister in May last year.

For managing roads, she recently launched 'e-pathai', an electronic management system, for better maintenance of 62,017 km of roads in the State.

It must be noted that e-pathai is an electronic project, administration, traffic, highway assets and information management system. The Web-enabled project will have three parts-- Geographical Information System, Project Financial Management System and Road Management System, an official release said.

As far as the police department is concerned,  it was her pioneering efforts in 1991 to upgrade the weaponry, equipment and infrastructure available to the State police that resulted in the implementation of the Modernisation of Police Force (MPF) scheme in all States with Central assistance.

In the aftermath of Rajiv Gandhi's assassination in 1991, she had approached the Centre seeking Rs.30-crore assistance to provide modern arms and ammunition, vehicles and other facilities to the State police for establishing law and order.

With Central funds and the State's own finances, she went about the task of modernising the State police, providing its personnel with AK-47 and MP5 rifles and establishing digital microwave network to link all stations. A bomb detection and disposal squad was also set up.

It was only after looking at the transformation of the Tamilnadu Police that other States began asking the Union government for funds to upgrade their own police forces.