BHUBANESWAR: Making a slew of announcements for the police department, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Saturday lifted the ban on recruitment of home guards, which was in force from February 2020.
Replying to the debate on demand for grants of Home department in the Assembly, the chief minister said 2,298 vacant home guard posts will be filled up. He also announced extension of compassionate appointment to home guards killed in the line of duty. A member of the family of a home guard killed in Naxal violence or in similar incidents will be provided government job, he said.
Majhi announced creation of 1,000 posts for traffic police, 4,000 posts for Odisha Industrial Security Force (OISF), sanction of 10 ODRAF teams, one police outpost each for 10 government medical colleges, one outpost at Baramunda inter-state bus terminal and 9,000 motorcycles for inspectors, sub-inspectors and assistant sub-inspectors.
The chief minister also gave permission to fill up 2,922 vacancies in different ranks of Odisha Police and 1,083 posts in the newly-created Special Security Battalion at Puri.
Announcing a budget provision of Rs 117 crore for emergency response system (112), the chief minister said the central government has approved Odisha government’s action plan of Rs 200 crore for capacity upgradation of the Fire Services department. The state government has sanctioned Rs 540 crore from State Disaster Relief Fund for capacity upgradation of 346 fire stations and another Rs 200 crore to further strengthen the fire and emergency services in the state, he said.
Five regional hubs will be established in Cuttack, Balasore, Sambalpur, Berhampur and Rayagada for improving disaster response systems. The process of identifying land and procuring equipment for the regional hubs has already started, he added.
He further said the Fire Services department has started training 10 search and rescue dogs for dealing with disasters like landslides and building collapse. These dogs will be deployed in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Puri, Angul, Berhampur, Koraput, Sambalpur, Rourkela and Balasore in the next six months. They are being trained by the Odisha Fire and Emergency Services in collaboration with the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), he said.