Claiming that the law and order situation in the State is under control, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday informed the Assembly that the Maoist activities and violence have substantially declined in 11 districts.
“The Maoist activity and violence have substantially declined in Jajpur, Dhenkanal, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Gajapati, Ganjam, Nabarangpur, Sambalpur, Deogarh, Sundargarh and Nayagarh districts,” said Patnaik while replying to the debate on the demand of grants for the Home Department in the Supplementary Budget amounting to `131.63 crore.
“Compared to neighbouring States like Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand which had 346 incidents with 75 deaths of civilian and security personnel and 170 incidents with 23 deaths of civilian and security personnel, respectively, 51 incidents with 18 deaths of these categories have been reported in Odisha during the year 2015 up to September,” said the CM.
Stating that surrender of Maoists has increased in the State; Patnaik told the House that 63 Maoist cadres/militias and 1,034 villagers, including many active militias and village committee members of Malkangiri district, have withdrawn their support to Maoists.
“There is peace and harmony in the State. There has been no major law and order situation. There was no communal incident, and the industrial climate by and large remained peaceful,” said Patnaik.
He informed that a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) has been formulated to deal with rail and road blockades while an SOP is also in place to encourage public to help road accident victims.
Patnaik also replied to the debate on the demand of grants for the General Administration Department in the Supplementary Budget totalling `3.87 crore and said his Government’s top priority is to complete recruitment for various posts.
“Since 2013, 30,186 posts have been filled up by different departments through direct recruitment. Further, different departments have sent requisitions for 21,201 posts to the recruiting agencies,” Patnaik said.
However, Opposition Congress and BJP members staged walkouts during the reply of the Chief Minister alleging that they did not get the answers to the queries they had made.