Public order in Odisha is treading on a danger zone. Riotous acts have emerged as the newest crime trend in Odisha with the acts of rioting charting a double-digit growth last year. More worrying is thefts, including bank heists, in State have also grown up in the year 2015.
These red blips were flashed on by the Crime Statistics-2015 recently released by the State police. When the State is agog over the heady mix of politician-criminal nexus, the report shows only a marginal rise in murders last year, and simultaneously, it recorded a fall in acts of dacoity. However, bank heists and other thefts, including auto thefts, showing a spike posed a challenge for the State police when the fact that surfaced recently was SIMI activists were found to be involved in bank heists in Odisha.
The crime statistics has also zoomed on to the habitual troublesome districts in the State. Over the years, the axis of dacoity in State has been the corridors of Bhubaneswar - Cuttack - Puri - Naygarh, Sambalpur - Rourkela, Angul - Dhenkanal, Baleswar, Sundergarh - Keonjhar and Ganjam. While overall dacoity cases have come down in 2015, but corridors like Angul - Dhenkanal and Sundergarh - Keonjhar have shown a spike in total cases. This looks worrisome as they have been the State’s industrial nerve centres.
It needs mentioning that a business survey done by World Bank a few years ago has highlighted dacoity and thefts as grave risks for the industrial-friendly ambience in Odisha.
However, the threat to public order looms large in the State as after two successive years of decline, riots have started moving up in 2015. Significantly, almost all categories of rioting have shown a spike last year reveal sources. Though spontaneous riots constitute almost 50 per cent of the total riot cases last year, caste-conflict led riots other than the SC/ST conflict-led riots occupied the second spot and farm distress-led riots was at the third spot. Industrial unrest led riots have witnessed a spike in Jagatsinghpur-Jajpur region, data reveals.
With Panchayat polls looming large on the horizon, the ‘riotous’ acts could spiral out of control as political parties in their greed to have vote-banks could use the public unrest to their hilt, and thus would nudge the police to a confronting scenario, observed a senior police official.
For instance, Bargarh with 164 cases of rioting has topped the State in 2015 and, incidentally, the district was the epicenter of farm distress last year and almost all the major political parties have thrown off big rallies or padyatras there, he outlined.
When the Bhubaneswar urban police area topped the State in thefts with a swift increase, Balewsar, Bargarh, Jharsuguda, Balangir, Koraput and Nabarangpur have recorded a quantum leap in theft cases last year. Mayurbhanj and Jajpur districts have been witness to the most violent crimes altogether in State. Above all, when Mayurbhanj has been the ‘rape capital’ of Odisha, Jajpur and Baleswar followed it closely.