Overall law & order situation in State remains peaceful, says CM Naveen Patnaik

Bhubaneswar: Replying to the discussion on Home, General Administration & PG demands in the Assembly, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said the overall law and order situation in the State remained by and large peaceful.

During the period, the State has been relatively free from any form of communal discord. The elections to PRI-2022, urban local bodies-2022 and elections to co-operative Societies were conducted peacefully in the State. The Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath with devotees participating in lakhs after two years was also conducted smoothly due to elaborate security arrangement.

The CM said intensity of overall Maoist violence has come down in the State. The panchayat elections have been conducted incident-free in affected areas with high voter turnout despite determined efforts by Maoists to hinder the poll process.

Strengthening the police machinery both in terms of human resources and infrastructure has been the priority of the Government. A total of 944 posts in various ranks have been created for Odisha police last year. Dedicated police stations for cyber crime and economic offences have been created.

Recruitment process is going on for filling up of about 1,730 posts in the rank of SI/ASI in police and posts in various ranks of Jail as well as under Fire Services. The government has created about 200 posts for 28 police outposts. Similarly, during the current year so far, the government has created three security companies in 3 IR battalions in the State with creation of 663 posts of different ranks.

The Prison Development Board has been constituted in order to improve and modernise the infrastructural facilities in prisons. The government recently enhanced the daily wages of convicts based on the level of their skills. As a part of social inclusion and uplift of all sections of society, transgenders were given permission to apply for SI's post in Odisha police.

The government created several institutional mechanisms like Integrated Anti-Human Trafficking Units, investigation units for crimes against women, mahila and sishu desks and crime against women and children wing with commensurate manpower. All women-related heinous crimes are being treated as "Red Flag Cases" and special public prosecutors are engaged for these cases.

All police stations across the State are being covered under elaborate CCTV. Installation of CCTVs has been completed in 584 police stations out of 593 police stations. Naveen said 15 cybercrime and economic offence police stations have been established to prevent growing cyber-crime.

All State police stations are covered under "Mo Sarkar" in order to achieve highest level of accountability and transparency through the feedback from the complainants/ citizens. More than 78,000 random calls were made to the citizens who visited police stations and more than 90 per cent citizens have given good rating to the police.

Mo Sarkar is an important transformative initiative under the 5T Charter of governance. All departments have a charter approved for implementation of transformational initiatives and service delivery under 5T. Mo Sarkar has been implemented across the departments and more than threee lakh citizens have expressed their satisfaction through Mo Sarkar calls and action has been taken on the basis of their feedbacks towards institutional transformation.

To ensure timely and hassle-free delivery of public services, the government has notified 412 public services relating to 31 departments under the Odisha Right to Public Service Act. The government is committed to promote and implement all policies aimed at the State's overall development and to provide safe and secure environment to all citizens. Special focus is to ensure inclusive growth of people and ensure transparent pro-people governance.