RAYAGADA PUBLIC APPEAL V K PANDIAN FOR A NEW POLICE STATION IN THE TOWN
Dr.Badal Tah,Odishabarta
Rayagada, January 10: Rayagada town, as per 2011 census, has 71000 population. But now it is estimated to be more than 1 lakh and in an increasing trend due to influx of outsiders. As Rayagada is declared as a Railway division and number of trains plying to almost all the prime cities of India, the population, both static and moving, is rapidly increasing. New mega industries have also come up adding to the population pressure.
There is only one single police station(PS) in the entire Rayagada town. One PS is supposed to cater twenty thousand population. If Rayagada town is divided into two parts, Old Town & New Town, many new habitations have come up over a period of time. In Old Town habitations like Brahmin Sahi, Gouda Sahi, KaranSahi, Paika Sahi, Damba Sahi, R K Nagar, Dhoba Sahi, Jayaramguda, Siriguda, Ramachandrapur, Rayat Colony, Barijhola, Kotlaguda, etc. come under Rayagada PS. In New town Sai Priya Nagar, Indira Nagar, Kasturi Nagar, Raniguda Farm, New Colony, Ring Road Area, Chekaguda, Tumbiguda, Mangala Mandia Area, DFO Colony area, Revenue Colony, Gandhi Nagar, Ashoka Talkies, Collectorate, SP office, Budravalsa, etc are also coming under the same PS.
Unlawful activities like theft, snatching, dacoity, smuggling of narcotics & other items are severely increasing. Criminals having national and international links and anti-national elements are taking refuge in the town. For example, all kind of drugs, theft materials, etc pass through two river ghats in the Brahmin street. One of the most important reasons for these activities is the ever increasing pressure on the single PS. For example, recently there were two thefts amounting lakhs of rupees and golden ornaments at Bramhin street in the houses of Sri Tapan Das and Sri Laxmi Narayan Satpathy. There is a chain snatching at entrance of Brahmin street during early morning. Once upon a time, Brahmin street was considered to be the safest place. Unfortunately now it is in peril. Though police is active in investigation, the valuables are yet to be recovered. Likewise many such incidents are occurring every day, few reported and many unreported.
Adding salt to the injury, the district administration has identified to rehabilitate slum dwellers evicted by Railways near PHED area where the mega water tank supplying water to the entire town is situated. According to the inhabitants of Brahmin street, this will create a law & order situation as there is every possibility of unscrupulous elements and high profile criminals & extremists creeping into the proposed colony to be rehabilitated of slum dwellers. They might do harm to the water source endangering lives of the entire town and peripheral villages.
Contextualising the above points of concern, a group of eminent persons from Rayagada town have requested Sri V K Pandian, Chairman-5T & Naveen Odisha, DG & DIG of Police including SP & Collector, Rayagada to look into the demands like establishment of one more new Police Station with requisite modern infrastructures & equipments alongwith required number of police personnel. Previously there were several Temporary Police Out Posts(TOP) in town covering small areas. The same system should be restored in areas like Siriguda, PHED below the ghat, Majhighariani Temple, Near DFO slum, FCI chowk, etc. CC TVs are mainly to be installed near two river ghats in Brahmin street. They have demanded the TOPs in the places as proposed above and at other sensitive places as police deem fit. To build confidence over the police, the theft materials from the inhabitants of Bramhin street must be recovered at the earliest, they said.
