Odisha govt approves rationalisation of 905 police posts, creation of 6 police stations

Approval for rationalisation of posts was given for better crime control and efficient delivery of citizen-centric services, the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said.
Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik
Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik

BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday approved rationalisation of 905 posts in Odisha police and creation of six additional police stations for better crime control and efficient delivery of citizen-centric services.

Approval for rationalisation of posts was given for better crime control and efficient delivery of citizen-centric services, the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said, and added that the move will strengthen 220 police stations and six outposts in 21 police districts of the State.

“Significant decline in the Maoist menace due to strong security response and development activities has enabled the state to rationalise its manpower in the police,” the CMO said.

The chief minister had earlier directed the Director-General of Police (DGP) to make more personnel available in police stations by way of rationalisation. The rationalisation has also helped in the creation of six new police stations in various districts by bifurcation of the existing ones.

The police stations which will be bifurcated are, Khandagiri police station (Bhubaneswar), Angul Town Police station (Angul), Jharsuguda Town Police station, (Jharsuguda), Bhanjanagar Police station (Ganjam), Bhadrak (Rural) police station (Bhadrak), and Tihidi Police Station (Bhadrak).

The police stations to benefit from the move area are 10 in urban police district in Bhubaneswar, six in urban police district in Cuttack, 12 in Cuttack district, seven in Jagatsinghpur, 13 in Jajpur, six in Kendrapara, 15 in Puri, nine in Nayagarh, seven in Khurda, 20 in Balasore, 13 in Bhadrak, eight in
Jharsuguda, 12 in Bolangir, five in Sonepur, nine in Dhenkanal, 14 in Angul, 15 in Ganjam, five each in Berhampur and Boudh, 13 in Sundargarh and 16 in Keonjhar.

However, the Opposition Congress and BJP maintained that in view of the increase in the work of police during the Covid-19 pandemic, the state government should consider new recruitment to fill up the existing vacancies.

About 10,054 posts of different categories are lying vacant in Odisha Police.

Minister of state for home Dibyashankar Mishra had admitted this while replying to a question in the assembly in December 2019.

Giving details on the 10,054 vacancies, the minister had said that 501 posts remain vacant in Group A, 1,823 in Group B, 6,487 in Group C, and 1,243 in Group D posts. The Odisha Police has a sanctioned strength of 72,119 while the present staff strength is 62,065, he said.

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