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Bhubaneswar: How could a common man feel safe on Odisha roads, when nearly 49,000 new criminals were on the prowl during the year 2019, whereas there were mere around 27,000 civil policemen to guard against.
As per the data available, last year police arrested a high of nearly 51,000 criminals under various IPC sections. The big shocker is a whopping 99.9 per cent were new offenders (means arrested for the first time).
The year 2019 was not an aberration. Data for over a decade reveals that nearly 87 -97 per cent of the total arrests made in Odisha were new offenders.
Odisha Police data, however, claims a dip in growing criminalisation of society in the State. As per the data, till the year 2017, the total arrests made by Odisha police under various IPC sections hovered in the range of 85,000 to one lakh. But for the year 2018 and 2019, the arrests made stood in the range of 50,000 - 60,000.
During the last two-years, as per the data, Odisha on an average saw nearly 50,000 new criminals joining the mainstream criminal world. In police lexicon, serial criminals (arrested more than once) are only a handful.
The proportion of serial criminals till year 2017 was around three per cent of total arrests. But since 2018, the proportion shrunk to around 0.1 - 1 per cent. This shows the proportion of new offenders are on the rise in Odisha.
Now, consider how impoverished is policing itself in the State. For over 729 aam admi, there is only one constable to guard. More shocking is the State has only 38 policemen to cover every 100 square km area.
As per the Bureau of Police Research Data (BPRD), as on Jan 1, 2019, the sanctioned strength of police personnel in Odisha stood at 67,148. The interesting comparison here is the sanctioned police strength in neighbouring Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand stood higher at 75,125 and 76,660, respectively.
It is significant to mention here that a State sanctions police personnel based on its budget, area, population and crime rate.
Odisha has a larger area and higher population count. In crime rate, NCRB 2018 data shows Jharkhand (122.2) has a lower crime rate than Odisha (192.4). The rate in Chhattisgarh is higher owing to high Maoist activities. In violent crime rate, both Chhattisgarh (30.5) and Jharkhand (31.4) are far below than Odisha (36.6) in 2018.
Significantly, the actual police strength in Odisha stood lower at 59,387 vis-a-vis sanctioned strength of 67,148. The result is vacancy count in Odisha stood at 7,761 in 2019. The consequence: State police neither has enough teeth to bite nor long tail to tighten the noose around the anti-socials.
Data with BPRD shows when the proportion of immediate supervisory staff per senior supervisory staff stood at 1:10.9 against 1:25 in Jharkhand and 1:12.3 in Chhatisgarh.
Similarly, the ratio of field personnel staff per supervisory staff in Odisha stood at 1: 53.9 vis-a-vis 1:95.7 in Chhattisgarh and 1: 84.2 in Jharkhand.
The bottomline is Odisha has to sanction more police personnel. And simultaneously, the State has to reduce the yawning gap between sanctioned and actual cop strength to rein in the rising crime graph.
