Bhubaneswar: The policemen in state have received laurels from several quarters by acting as the frontline warriors in the battle against novel coronavirus . The unprecedented situation that arose due to the Covid-19 outbreak has brought to the fore the humane side of the policemen who otherwise face severe criticisms for their ‘highhandedness’.
Apart from maintaining law and order, officials of the Odisha Police have been working round-the-clock for the last two months to enforce the countrywide lockdown as part of the precautionary measures against the deadly virus. Even, they received accolades from Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for their selfless service and humane approach towards the citizens in dire straits during the lockdown.
However, the unprecedented situation has also posed a new challenge to the police personnel with regard to investigations into the crimes. Many experts have raised apprehensions that the deployment of a sizeable portion of the state police force to enforce the lockdown and ensure social distancing among the people for longer period will have a negative impact on the process of investigations.
On the other hand, data from various sources revealed that the security establishment in state has been reeling from severe staff crunch, huge pending of cases and an extremely dismal conviction rate.
As per the government sources, as many as 10,054 posts of security personnel including 501 in Group A, 1,823 in Group B, 6,487 in Group C and 1,243 in Group D have been lying vacant in state.
Recently, a nation-wide survey has revealed that due to staff crunch a personnel of the Odisha Police normally works for more than twice of his actual duty period of eight hours in a day. The personnel of Odisha reportedly perform duty for 18 hours in a day – the highest duration in India.
Additionally, Odisha tops the states with lowest conviction rate in India. As per the data available with the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the rate of conviction in Odisha stood at 5.7 per cent in 2018 as compared to 9.3 per cent under IPC crime head in 2017.
So, the diversion of cops for law and order duty in order to ensure the compliance of various Covid-19 regulations will certainly hamper the process of investigations resulting in even lower conviction rate. Subsequently, the state may witness a significant rise in the crime incidents in the future, said an expert.
The state government is yet to make any headway in implementing the Supreme Court judgement in Prakash Singh Vs Union of India case (2006) regarding the separation of police forces for Law and Order duty and investigation. Odisha Police had sent a proposal in this regard to the state Home department in 2018, sources said.
Speaking on the issue, a senior police official said, “The diversion of cops for the Covid-19 duty will have a negative impact on the quality of investigations. The Home department in 2009 had directed the state police to create separate units for law and order and investigations but no action was taken.”
Gyan Ranjan Mohapatra, OP
