Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
Initiating Opposition observations on demands of Home as well as General Administration, whip Prasad Harichandan alleged that the government is using the Crime Branch as its shield while using the Vigilance wing as it weapon against whosoever is found disadvantageous to its design. No wonder, the Transparency International has concluded that Police is the most corrupt wing of Orissa administration, he pointed out and added, the Government, unambiguously guilty of misusing the police politically, has dragged them to such a sorry state.
He remarked that the Police in Orissa are being looked at askance by the general public as in-charge personnel invariably fail to take up speedy, appropriate, successful action against miscreants. But in reality they are jeopardized by non-provision of essential effects by the Government, he said, showing how absence of adequate manpower and work atmosphere has eclipsed their motivation.
Mr. Harichandan, trading on the Congress line on Naxalism, categorically pointed out that 12,370 posts out of 55,025 approved posts in the State’s Police set up are lying vacant due to habitual nonchalance that incorrigibly afflicts administration under the incumbent Chief Minister. Even the importance of keeping a Director General of Police stable in his post for at least two years to enable him work in perfect pursuit of his action plan is not being appreciated by the Government, he alleged.
When the top Cop is not sure of his positional stability, when as many as 36 sensitive Police Stations are not provided with vehicles and those having allotted with vehicles are in paucity of funds to procure fuel for them, when the available and assured funds for modernization of the Police are not being utilized due to dullness in administration, how does the Home department justify the demands it has placed before the Assembly, he asked.
Mr. Kalpataru Das of the ruling BJD defended the demands by projecting a picture of programs under execution and on anvil for infrastructure improvement to suit the Police set-up. His party colleague Asok Panda, however, advised the Government to appreciate that the Naxal tangle couldn’t be tackled through Police force alone. He emphasized on sincere implementation of welfare measures in rural areas to lessen the scope of Naxal expansion. Dealing with the demands of the GA department, he stressed on retention of the State’s rights over lands being given to BDA and Housing Board.
Members Amar Pr. Satapathy, Anup Sai, Prabhat Biswal, Naba kishore Das, Pratap Kumar Sarangi, Niranjan Pujari, Mamata Madhi, Jiwan Pradipta Das, Jeorge Tirki, Prafulla Majhi etc also contributed to the discussions.
In replying the debates, Chief Minister Navin Patnaik informed the House that extinguishment of Naxal fire is his government’s top priority, which, if not today, tomorrow he will accomplish. As a step towards that 4000 new home guards would soon be appointed with enhancement of their existing wage from Rs.90 to Rs.110 per day and assured engagement from 90 to 300 days a year.