Orissa to strengthen police setup in industrial hubs

Orissa to strengthen police setup in industrial

Kalinga Times

5th May 2007

Bhubaneswar: It seems Orissa Government is now out to ensure industrialisation at gunpoint. The local administration's failure to contain people's opposition to various projects has prompted the government to initiate measures for strengthening police setup in the upcoming industrial hubs.

Till recently, strengthening of the police administration was limited to the Maoist-infested regions where underdevelopment had given rise to discontentment among the general public.

The latest move, however, is aimed at improving the law and order situation in the industrial areas where people were saying a clear `no' to displacement by industries or were demanding proper resettlement and rehabilitation in lieu of their land and homes.

According to reliable sources, the State government's Home Department has decided to establish three new police stations, upgrade five police outposts into full-fledged police stations and augment staff in another 20 existing police stations.

All these 28 proposed and existing police stations are spread over area witnessing setting up various developmental projects and industries such as steel plants, alumina refineries and mining of different minerals.

The three new police stations will come up at Badamal in Jharsuguda district, Khelkoloi in Sambalpur and Abhaychandrapur in Jagatsinghpur district.

The five outposts that are all set to become police stations are at Jhumpura and Bamebari outpost in Keonjhar, Kaliapani and Jenapur in Jajpur and Khuntuni in Cuttack, sources said.

Kalinga Nagar police station at the Kalinga Nagar Industrial Complex in Jajpur and Kujang police station in the close vicinity of the proposed POSCO steel plant project area in Jagatsinghpur figure in the list of 20 existing police stations that were expected to get adequate number of staff.

The other districts where the existing police station will witness augmentation of staff are spread over several districts including, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Angul and Dhenkanal.

According to the new arrangement, a total 26 police Inspectors will be required to meet the staff requirement in the 28 police stations. Of them, eight Inspectors will be manning the eight new police stations.

As regards other staff, all the 28 police stations put together will require 118 Sub-Inspectors, 27 Assistant Sub-Inspectors, 22 Havildars, 151 Constables and as many as 42 Assistant drivers.