BHUBANESWAR: Riding on the success against Left wing extremism which has been on the wane in the State, the Government has decided to rationalise 905 police posts to improve staff position in 220 police stations and six outposts.
Personnel from areas hit by Maoist menace will be posted to other districts as per the decision. The rationalisation move has been approved by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The redeployment will involve 112 sub-inspectors, 33, assistant sub-inspectors and 760 constables. Besides, the move has helped creation of six new police stations in various districts by bifurcating the existing ones. Odisha, at present, has 612 police stations.
The Chief Minister’s Office said the rationalisation was aimed at better crime control and efficient delivery of citizen centric services and added that the Chief Minister had, earlier, directed Director General of Police (DGP) Abhay to make more personnel available in police stations.
The police stations to benefit from the decision include 10 in Bhubaneswar and six in Cuttack urban police districts; 12 in Cuttack district, seven in Jagatsinghpur, 13 in Jajpur, six in Kendrapara, 15 in Puri, nine in Nayagarh, seven in Khurda, 20 in Balasore, 13 in Bhadrak, eight in Jharsuguda, 12 in Bolangir, five in Sonepur, nine in Dhenkanal, 14 in Angul, 15 in Ganjam, five each in Berhampur and Boudh, 13 in Sundargarh and 16 in Keonjhar.
The CMO said Khandagiri PS at Bhubaneswar, Angul Town PS, Jharsuguda Town PS, Bhanjanagar PS at Ganjam, Bhadrak (Rural) PS and Tihidi PS at Bhadrak have been bifurcated for creation of new police stations.
Meanwhile, the Opposition Congress and BJP have maintained that in view of increased work load on police during the Covid-19 pandemic, the State Government should consider new recruitment to fill up the existing vacancies.
About 10,054 posts of different categories are lying vacant in Odisha Police administration, according to a reply by Minister of State for Home Dibyashankar Mishra in the Assembly in December last year. At least 501 posts are vacant in Group A, 1,823 in Group B, 6,487 in Group C and 1,243 in Group D posts. The Odisha Police has a sanctioned strength of 72,119 while the present staff strength is 62,065.
Better crime control
Redeployment will involve 112 sub-inspectors, 33, assistant sub-inspectors and 760 constables
Khandagiri PS at Bhubaneswar, Angul Town PS, Jharsuguda Town PS, Bhanjanagar PS at Ganjam, Bhadrak (Rural) PS and Tihidi PS at Bhadrak bifurcated for creation of new police stations
10,054 posts of different categories are lying vacant in Odisha Police administration