Kerala Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan Saturday said that the state would legislate a new Kerala Police Act and for this would soon pilot a suitable bill in the state assembly.

'The present Act is one which the British floated. We have a draft that has been prepared by Justice (retd) V.R. Krishna Iyer. We will come out with a new bill based on this and it would be subjected to discussion in the assembly,' said Balakrishnan after a review meeting of top police officials.

He said that one priority area would be to make the police organisation people friendly.

'We have only begun this with the introduction of community policing, which is there at 14 places. See, the dream of a people friendly police cannot just happen like that because a lot of things have to fall in place,' he said.

He said the Left government is celebrating its second anniversary May 18 and was happy to have effected changes that improve the lot of the police force in the state.

'For the first time ever, we introduced an eight-hour shift in 34 police stations,' Balakrishnan said, adding that the age-old practice of a policeman standing with a rifle in front of select police stations has been dispensed with.

He said on account of close monitoring of the department, the performance of the state police has received excellent reviews from several quarters.

'Maybe, the opposition here is not happy and I can understand their feelings. Will any opposition anywhere give credit to a department? But the centre and the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) have all said that Kerala is one of the safest places in the country,' said Balakrishnan.