In his bid to silence the Opposition over the mysterious death of panchayat official Smitarani Biswal in Jajpur district, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday said politicising human tragedy relating to women is “inhuman”.
Patnaik was replying to the debate on the Supplementary Statement of Expenditure of the Home Department in the State Assembly. “Politicising any human tragedy especially relating to women is inhuman,” Patnaik said in response to the Opposition members’ daylong allegation on rising crimes against women, particularly, the death of Biswal.
Both Leader of Opposition Pardipta Naik (BJP) and Congress Legislature Party Leader Narasingha Mishra along with their parties’ members during the debate referred to Biswal’s death case and accused the Government of shielding the culprits as ruling BJD leaders are allegedly involved in it.
Patnaik in his reply said the matter should not be politicised. “Today, I am not going to make a regular statement. Forget that I am Chief Minister for 19 years or that I am president of the Biju Janata Dal,” he said in an apparent bid to keep himself above politics while speaking on the crimes against women.
Referring to the allegations, Patnaik said, “This kind of politics will never give any return. We are a mature democracy. We represent the four and half crore people of Odisha. Let us set high standards of political discourse both in the Assembly and outside.”
Describing rape, murder, death of women as “extremely sad events”, he said politicising them multiplies the trauma and gives a very wrong message to the people at large and young people in particular.
Patnaik said in case anyone is not satisfied with the investigation, there are legal recourses as alternative.
He assured the House that crime against women would be one of his Government’s priorities and the Government would leave no stone unturned to ensure that justice is done.
Patnaik claimed that at least four culprits were given capital punishment in the rape and murder of minor rapes due to prompt and professional investigation.
Referring to the allegation that the rate of conviction in the State continues to remain low, Patnaik said there has been an increase in the conviction rate in red flag cases, which have gone up to 41.48 per cent in the year 2019.
Earlier, Narasingha Mishra had alleged that the rate of conviction in is around nine per cent. Patnaik also issued a strong message to the police. “Do your job with commitment, without fear or favour. Do not bother about statistics of registration of cases. Let me place on record; for my Government, people are more important than the statistics,” he said.
He claimed that the overall law and order and crime situation is largely under control and there have been no large-scale Maoist activities.
Patnaik also made an announcement that by August 2020, people of the State would have a choice whether to visit a Government office or not for any service or entitlement. The people would get online service through common service centre or door delivery. “This is one of the biggest targets we have taken for the Government sector under the 5T character,” he said.
The next big transformation the Government would like to achieve is payment of wages through banks in all the works, he said, adding that this is another huge target of 5T. “People, especially poor labourers, will be hugely benefited by this,” he stated. He sought cooperation of all to take the State to next level of an empowered Odisha.
Earlier, both Pradipta Naik and Narasingha Mishra had demanded that the Smitarani Biswal death case be handed over to the CBI or a court-monitored SIT probe, registration of the case under Section 302 instead of 306 of IPC, action against the Jajpur SP for allegedly assassinating character of the dead woman and removal of Chairperson of the State Commission for Women for allegedly siding with the BJD people involved in the case.
They also came down heavily on the Government over a series of rape cases that took place at Pipli, Kunduli, Kalahandi and other places.