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Bhubaneswar: Here's a shocker. Police stations in Odisha, which have the responsibility of ensuring safety of public, are themselves unsafe.
The eye-popping home truth has been revealed by a Union Home Ministry report that was released at the recently concluded DGP conference in Pune, which was attended by PM Modi.
The report titled Ranking of Police Stations 2019 has laid bare the fragilities of police stations in the State.
As per the report, safety of police stations are measured on two indicators : CCTV and Fire safety. And police stations from State failed on both counts.
Under the indicator of CCTV, Union Ministry of Home has used a tool developed by auditors of Grant Thornton to analyse the safety of PS across the country.
The listed parameters under CCTV are: number of CCTVs installed in the police stations; if installed whether they are working and if functional, do they cover the entire area. It also analysed the place of CCTV installation, like whether a CCTV is at the reception and also in the compound of PS etc.
For ranking a police station safe, the tool has also considered the fire-proof of police stations in the country. This is very significant when only recently in West Bengal a rioting mob set the police station on fire.
The tool therefore examined the stocking of fire extinguishers in police stations. Moreover, if stocked, are they tested timely and working. Besides, it also verified if a police station have fire alarm and fire safety infrastructure like sand buckets, hose pipes, etc.
At the same time, the availability of any assembly area in a Police Station and safety of electrical equipment like wires and switch boards have also been analysed.
Post thorough verification on both indicators, the tool ranked police stations in Odisha as unsafe and not secured (as shown in the picture). The analysis further said the safety & security of police stations need to be improved.
As per the Bureau of Police Research & Development (BPRD) data, Odisha police has 790 CCTVs in 2018. In contrast, Telangana, which was ranked good in the Police Ranking Report 2019, has 2.14 lakh CCTVs. When total PS in Odisha stood at 653, Telangana has 780 police stations.
Also, police stations in the State were found lacking in additional facilities like disabled friendly infra, drinking water facilities etc.
A significant mention here is the test check of police stations across the country were done during the period of Oct 7-25 this year. And, coincidentally, CM Naveen Patnaik under the much-touted Mo Sarkar scheme had sanctioned Rs 17.5 crore to 587 police stations in Odisha on October 29 for perking up the police capacity and infrastructure.
Interestingly, in the Police Ranking report, where only two police stations from Odisha are to be included for consideration in the All-India ranking as the police stations count in the State are below 750, Kuchinda PS (Sambalpur) and Pallahara PS (Angul) pipped other 651 PSs in the State, including PS under Police Commissionerate.
But none of the two PS that topped the State ranking could find a place in the top-10 PS across the country.
The reason: In the indicator of crime against women, weaker sections and property offences, Odisha PS failed to score in the indicator of chargesheeting rate (means chargesheets filed with respect to total cases registered).
