Bhubaneswar: Amid rising crime cases and efforts to curb organised criminal syndicates, Odisha Police has reintroduced district-level inspections by senior IPS officers, an official notification said.
The notification issued by the Odisha Police Headquarters in Cuttack June 6 said 15 senior IPS officers in the ranks of DGP, ADGP and IGP have been assigned to inspect police-related activities across 17 districts from July.
Sources said the practice of senior officers’ district inspections had been discontinued in 2019. However, in view of recent concerns over custodial deaths and mob lynching incidents, the system has been revived to strengthen supervision of policing at the ground level.
During the visits, senior officers will review the functioning of district police offices and reserve police establishments, crime situations, left-wing extremism cases and overall law and order, the order said, adding that they will submit monthly inspection reports to the DGP.
According to the order, some officers have been assigned two districts each, including Crime Branch DG Vinaytosh Mishra (Balasore and Bhadrak) and Anti-Naxal Operations ADG Sanjeeb Panda (Koraput and Rayagada), while others have been given single districts, such as ADG (Modernisation) Saumendra Priyadarshi (Jagatsinghpur), Coastal Security ADG Arun Bothra (Angul), ADG (Headquarters) Prateek Mohanty (Jajpur), Training IGP Anup Kumar Sahoo (Puri) and Crime Branch IGP Sarthak Sarangi (Kendrapada).
Sources said the district crime scenario will now be monitored at three levels — SP, DIG or IG, and a senior IPS officer of ADG or DG rank.
Meanwhile, the opposition BJD said the move indicated that the police administration in the state was not functioning effectively.
Party spokesperson Lenin Mohanty alleged that police stations were functioning like offices of the ruling party and said the situation must change.
He also alleged that illegal extraction of minor minerals such as sand, stone chips and morrum continued unabated in the state, which he said had demoralised honest police officers.