Vacancies affecting police efficiency, says DGP -----“Community policing in Rourkela soon”

Rourkela: Terming the Maoist problem as the biggest challenge for the state police, Director General of Police (DGP) Prakash Mishra today said the situation was particularly bad in five districts: Koraput, Malkangiri, Balangir, Bargarh and Nabarangpur.

On a day’s visit to the Steel City, Mishra, however, claimed that eight of the 16 districts earlier affected by Maoist activities were now completely devoid of Maoism due to vigorous action by the police. These eight districts are Nayagarh, Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Deogarh, Gajapati, Rayagada, Nuapada and Sundargarh, he said. The State police planned to carry out more operations in Maoist affected districts with deployment of more personnel, greater patrolling and setting up of police head posts and control rooms.

Leaders of the Maoist factions from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh calling the shots in the Maoist affected areas, Mishra said adding efforts were on to isolate them. In reply to a question, he said Odisha Communist Party leader Sabyasachi Panda had his support base in Ganjam, Gajapati and Kandhamal districts. He reiterated his appeal to Panda to shun the path of violence and join the mainstream.

Maintaining that a large number of vacancies at the inspector and sub-inspector levels had affected the efficiency of the police force, the DGP said steps were being taken to recruit more officers to get over this problem. “About 350 officers will join the force after completing their training this year and a similar number will pass out the next year. We hope to fill up all the vacancies in the next two to three years,” he said.

Mishra said community policing will be launched shortly in three cities of the state, including Rourkela. “We are working on greater visibility of police personnel to give a sense of security to the citizenry,” he said.

Two elite units, each with strength of about 100 specially trained police personnel, will be set up in Bhubaneswar and Puri to tackle urban crime in the next 6-7 months. Sophisticated and modern weapons would be provided to these two units, he added. He, however, remained non-committal about conferment of commissionerate status to Rourkela.

Various sections of people met the DGP and submitted memorandums on issues related to increase of crime and the deterioration of law and order situation in Rourkela as well as in Sundargarh district.

Mishra inaugurated two well furnished and improvised police stations at Jhirpani and Chhend here. As Chief Guest at the Inter-District Police Hockey championship, he gave away prizes to the winners and the runners-up team.