‘Govt not interested in police reforms’

BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) on Monday targeted the State government for not showing interest in police reforms which have resulted in deteriorating law and order situation in Odisha. 

The conviction rate in Odisha is less than the national average and police have been successful in tracing only 27 per cent (pc) of the missing children from the State, Congress spokesperson Nishikanta Mishra told mediapersons here. While crime against women in the State has increased during the challenging time of Covid-19, the government has failed to take steps to make the police more functional, he said. 

Mishra alleged that though the government has time and again maintained that investigation, law and order have been separated in the Commissionerate Police, facts are not so. The government has thrice submitted wrong affidavits in this regard in the Supreme Court, he said. Mishra demanded that the government should bring out a white paper on law and order situation in the State.