Senior citizens unsafe in Bhubaneswar
The brutal murder of a doctor couple followed by incidents of four thefts on a single day in Bhubaneswar in the Om Sai apartment has once again raised fingers at the capability of prevention and detection of crime by police in the capital city. On December 26 at about 2 am four houses were robbed by criminals. All victims are above the septuagenarian age living alone or with their spouses.
With these incidents the myth that living in apartment is comparatively secured no longer holds truth. There are CCTV cameras. Even then the miscreants took away cash and jewellery worth lakhs of rupees. Iron grills and locks could not prevent them from entering the house. They barged in by breaking them in their own mechanism. Even the CCTV footage could not provide the lead for investigation as the miscreants wore jackets and masks. In hindsight, the senior denizens must be cursing themselves as parents for raising nuclear families and sending their children elsewhere to earn their livelihood and in turn live a life of orphans on the reverse order, isn’t thatIJ
A job of petty politicians
Inviting local MlAs to Government programmes is a mere ritual observed more in its breach. If the MlA is from an opposition party then it is bound to turn political. This exactly is what has happened in Rourkela when the ruling BJD and the opposition BJP entered into squabbles creating a scene of heated arguments, hecklings and wielding of lathis. This was over distribution of allowances to beneficiaries under the Madhu Pension Yojana. That the programme was preponed and dovetailed to Hemangini Chhuria’s Bonai visit on Wednesday last deprived Dilip Ray of his ‘right to invitation’, so alleged the BJP.
But making a hue and cry on the spot for about two hours and instigating violence in the presence of the local cops was not in tune with the prescribed law or the established democratic practice, if we go by the impartial comment of the general public present there.
It is certainly not with the approval of MlA Dilip Ray who has matured himself to shun the image of his political hooliganism espoused during the initial years of his political career. It must be by the second rung petty politicians who probably are adopting the methods to boost their identity once their mentor used to follow. The police officials did manage to control the situation which could have turned worse but the incidents warrants a case suo moto in the absence of one FIR from either side.
The Minister was rightly advised to cancel his programme and police rightly decided not to precipitate the issue. Bur right or wrong, inaction of police has exposed its weakness to take prudent decisions during squabbles involving politicians.
MlA goes amok; police mere onlooker
The Rourkela police providing an olive branch to Biramitrapur MlA George Tirkey is unfathomable. This may be part of its strategy to allow the tribal leader to indulge in more unlawful acts and then seal his fate by taking him to custody. For, some of his supporters in the meantime have been held in police custody. last year he held the railways into ransom as tribals in thousands blocked the Howrah-Bombay line for about three days creating inconvenience to lakhs of travellers. His recent road block in front of the municipal corporation office for one and a half months over inclusion of two nearby panchyats with the corporation was also against the popular opinion. Even more dangerous is the allegation against him about his people demanding a king’s ransom from those putting up boundaries on Idco allotted plots for industrial purpose. He has a long list of opposition to projects involving public interest at large.
To name the few are: Biramitrapur-Barkot highway expansion and proposed transport nagar work et al. His Adibasi Mulabasi Manch is alleged to have upped its ante for running a reign of terror in the region. ‘Awaz’, an organisation working for peoples’ welfare has raised its voice so that peace returns to the city. Police action is under the public scrutiny. It is time the Government gifted the Rourkela police the status of ‘commissionerate police’ in the New Year.
Caught between charity and profit
Set up by the SAIl for its employees, service at the Ispat General Hospital (IGH), Rourkela may not be strictly charitable in nature but it’s not non-profitable either. Caught between the two, it does not serve the employees of Rourkela Steel Plant to a full extent nor does it satisfy the private parties who pay for the service.
The doctors there are good and the equipment is ultra modern. The cleanliness of the hospital will even surprise Swachh votary Prime Minister Narendra Modi but the paramedical staff do not mean business. Gossip mongers as they are, they waste valuable time of the patients and their attendants who wait for hours amidst long queues. An ultra sound costs a patient Rs 800 but if the cost of the time spent is added then it is much more.
Comparative service of similar nature in private hospitals would rather cost less. Accordingly to a rough calculation, the hospital can treat its employees out of the payment made by private parties alone.But it has to learn extending ‘out-of-the- box’ service to the private parties. Its romance with a super specialty hospital after declaration of the Prime Minster might have fizzled out for the time being, but as one of the best hospitals in the east zone of our country, IGH should work to its full capacity to notch up the deserving status.
(The writer, a former PR Manager of SAIl in Rourkela Steel Plant, a former Vice-Chairman of PRSI, Orissa Chapter, is a functional Editor of English weekly ‘Kosal Horizon, email: baidyanathmishra123@rediffmail.com, Cell : 94370 83025)