The civil society has criticised ruling BJD corporator of Ward 52 of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) for misbehaving with police officers. The latter had sought to prevent him from violating election guidelines while polling was in progress for the by-election in the Ward 19 on Friday.
According to sources, corporator Nrupesh Nayak, nephew of BJD leader Surendra Nath Nayak, was loitering within the prohibited distance from a polling booth at the IRC Village Government High School. When police officers, including Nayapalli police station IIC Anup Kanungo, in the presence of Bhubaneswar DCP Nitinjit Singh asked him to leave the place, the corporator refused and, instead, allegedly misbehaved with Kanungo. This led to arguments between the two which the DCP solved.
The corporator was not a resident of the ward, pointed out police sources, and he had nothing to do with the election work. The civil society is of the opinion that the BJD leadership should take to task the party men who misbehave with the police and common people by dropping names of heavyweights of ruling party.
Notably, the corporator has two criminal cases against him before. Misbehaving with Kanungo, who was recently elected as the president of the Odisha Police Association and awarded as the best Inspector of 2013 by the Commissionerate Police and the best Office-in-Charge of police when he was at the Begunia police station, has led to deep resentment among the police force.
The corporator’s conduct was especially surprising when BMC Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena had expressed his satisfaction over the steps taken by the police for smooth completion of the by-poll, said police sources.
The civil society is of the view that the ruling party leadership should teach party members how to behave in public and how not to show off their positions to the police on duty for their personal and partisan gains.