BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Police’s capabilities in criminal investigation is set to take a huge leap with establishment of a campus of National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU) and a Central Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL).
The state will join a handful of states and Union territories having the state-of-the-art referral laboratory. The advanced facility will boost the state’s forensic testing infrastructure and reduce dependence on other centres in the country. Currently, Chandigarh, New Delhi, Bhopal, Pune, Kolkata, Guwahati and Hyderabad have CFSLs.
The government has allotted about 40 acre land at Info Valley to set up the campus of NFSU and the CFSL. The ground breaking ceremony for the two new facilities will be held soon, sources said.
Sources said, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and NFSU will jointly set up the CFSL. The laboratory is slated to start functioning from a building of Indian Oil Corporation limited in Mancheswar Industrial Estate soon till it gets its own building.
“The State Forensic Science Laboratory (SFSL) in Bhubaneswar does not have advanced technology and infrastructure for which samples are frequently sent to CFSLs in Kolkata, New Delhi and Hyderabad and SFSL at Gandhinagar for forensic examination. A dedicated CFSL here will fill the vacuum,” DGP YB Khurania tld the newspaper.
The NFSU will create skilled professionals in crime investigation as well as train police officers while the CFSL will enhance the testing capabilities. “The establishment of NFSU and CFSL will tremendously benefit Odisha. While NFSU will give an opportunity to students from Odisha and other parts of the country to pursue the courses, CFSL will strengthen and empower criminal investigation.
It will also receive samples from other states for examination,” said Khurania.
Amid significant rise in online crimes, the state government is also planning to establish a Centre of Excellence for Cyber Forensics to organise training programmes for the police officers and collect data from various sources to provide actionable intelligence to the law enforcement agencies, the DGP said.
Khurania said, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi has laid optimum focus on strengthening police infrastructure and augmenting manpower.