BHUBANESWAR: Giving more teeth to prosecution and investigation of crime in the state, the Odisha government on Wednesday approved creation of a large number of posts in directorates of public prosecutions as well as state forensic science.
The Home department brought out notification on creation of 267 new posts for directorate of public prosecutions which would help speed up prosecution and enhance conviction rate in the state. Five new posts of deputy director, three of public prosecutor, 64 of additional public prosecutor and 91 of assistant public prosecutor have been created.
Similarly, 31 posts of deputy director, 42 of additional public prosecutor and 31 of junior assistant were created for district directorate of public prosecutions. The new posts are expected to boost the conviction rate which has witnessed an upward trend.
As per the data presented by the government in the Assembly recently, there has been an improvement in conviction rate for crimes under IPC/BNS. Convictions increased from 11.9 per cent in 2022 to 29.3 per cent in 2023 and touched 30 per cent in 2024.
Apart from prosecution, the state forensic science services organisation’s manpower was also augmented by the state government with the creation of 247 new posts.
The Home department said posts for one joint director, two deputy directors, 20 assistant directors, 65 senior scientific officers, 71 scientific officers, 21 senior forensic attendants and 67 junior forensic attendants have been created.
To improve the quality of scientific evidence collection, the state government also gave a go ahead to the Odisha Police to procure 36 mobile forensic vans. The vans will be procured from National Forensic Sciences University under the scheme for Modernisation of Forensic Capabilities.