BHUBANESWAR: Bhubaneswar Police’s decision to engage youths from slums to control crowd and regulate traffic during the festival season has not gone down well with the Opposition political parties which have dubbed it as misuse of police by the Biju Janata Dal government.
As per plans, the City Police has decided to enlist youths as “Police Mitra” for the festival season. The youths would be deployed for traffic and crowd control.Interestingly, the Twin City Police had a traffic volunteer scheme under which students were allowed to volunteer for traffic management. After the pandemic struck, the scheme has been suspended.
However, political parties said designating youths from slums as “Police Mitras” is a political move by the government.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said the government is using the festival to influence voters ahead of the urban polls.
“It has introduced the programme to influence the voters by using the police. This is a scheme managed by the government,” said BJP spokesperson Dilip Mohanty, who was a corporator in 1997.
This system is not going to serve any purpose except making a database of the slum residents who will be utilised by the government, he added.
“What is the point of using youths from slums to manage crowd and traffic when there are restrictions in place due to the pandemic,” he added.
The Congress said engaging youths from slums will serve no purpose as the arrangement is only temporary.
“The police administration is suffering due to shortage of manpower and law and order situation is deteriorating. Instead of recruiting more police personnel, what is the logic behind engaging youths,” said Congress spokesperson Ganeswar Behera.
"In a notification, the Special Relief Commissioner has already informed that this year there will be no public participation during Durga Puja. It seems the government does not mean what it says and has a hidden agenda," he added.
With the urban local body polls set to be conducted next year, Opposition parties believe that it is a ploy to influence the voters.
Police have planned to engage about 1,000 youths from different slums of the Capital city for the purpose.