Bhubaneswar: Be it the instance of killing of BJP leader Manguli Jena during elections 2019 or the sensational Puri triple murder in June/July or the alleged sexual assault on a class 7 tribal girl by hubby of headmistress in Koraput, or the gangrape of a minor in Puri allegedly by a cop in the penultimate month, law and order scenario in the State has been on the edge in 2019.
Amidst such nagging developments in State's crime scenario, the shocking development was the year in Odisha saw 3 DGPs in a year. While IPS RP Sharma, who was State's DGP since 2017, took voluntary retirement from government service in August this year only to get appointed as member in State Lokayukta, Odisha government appointed senior IPS BK Sharma and DG Fire Services as acting DGP.
Later, the State government vested with Sharma the full powers of DGP, only to remove him after three months citing some allegations of irregularities during his tenure as DG, Fire Services. And 1986-batch IPS Abhay has been appointed as the new DGP.
The noteworthy mention here is country’s Apex Court in its 2018 landmark judgement had ordered states/UTs not to appoint acting or in-charge DGP. It has further asked the states/UTs that they should send the names of prospective officers to the UPSC for it to make a choice well in advance.
As per Apex Court judgement, a DGP should have a minimum fixed tenure of 2-years to ensure functional autonomy at the highest level. Moreover, it's the DGP who counsels government over effective crime control strategies, and a fixed tenure would give the autonomy to devise anti-crime measures.
In a clear coincidence, the flipside of having 3 DGPs in a year is discernible on the ground. Odisha government's own statistics paint a very terrifying crime scenario. Sexual and violent crimes took place at a greater pace.
Odisha witnessed nearly 4 murders a day. Data till October end shows a tally of around 1003 murders in the State. Similarly, in the first six months (Jan – Jun) of current calendar year, Odisha saw registration of 1,149 rape cases. Minor rapes constituted a massive 604 cases or 52 per cent of the total rapes.
And in a span of 7 years, minor rapes have not only clocked an eye-popping 645 per cent but also constituted a whopping over 50 per cent of total rapes vis-a-vis mere 13 per cent in 2012.
The good tidings on the law and order front is Left Wing Extremism (LWE) incidents in the State have seen a drastic drop. Till November end, Odisha has recorded only 44 LWE incidents vis-a-vis 75 incidents in year 2018. Till Nov end the casualty count of security forces (SF) stood at one. In 2018, Odisha had only a lone casualty of security forces.
No rise in SF casualty and a dip in incidents reveal that LWE situation in Odisha is well under control. The big message it drives down is when a coherent strategy on LWE can work wonder, why not in other crimes?