Balasore: Even as the state government has taken decisions to establish cyber police stations in the region six months back keeping in mind the ever-growing menace of cyber crime in north Odisha including Balasore district, a little or nothing has been done in this regard, a report said.
According to sources, the district had registered 70 cyber crime cases in fiscal 2015-16, 88 cyber crime cases 2017-18 and the figure crossed 100 in FY2018-19. Former DGP Rajendra Prasad Sharma had made an announcement in this regard in order to bring the ever-growing menace under control.
Balasore police has opened a cyber cell in the district to curb cyber crime. Allegedly, the cell failed to serve denizens and serve the purpose with its limited infrastructure and manpower.
As a result, cyber criminals are finding ways to spread their network in the district and police have failed to nab the culprits. Establishing a permanent cyber police station with technical experts and improved infrastructure could only help resolve the problem, locals opined.
On being contacted, Balasore SP Jugal Kishor Kumar Banoth said, “A cyber police station is badly needed in the district in order to curb the ever-growing cyber crimes here but the state government hasn’t given a nod for establishing one in Balasore.”
Nowadays, denizens find cashless transactions convenient to carry out sale and purchases without visiting banks and this has given rise to cyber crimes in the district, experts opined. Even highly-educated and rich people fall prey to the cyber criminals being lured by several cheats.
Apart from the above, cyber criminals hack bank accounts as well as websites of renowned government and private organisations. Easily, they manage to obtain ATM card numbers; personal identification numbers (PINs), debit, and credit card verification values (CVVs).
On the other hand, several nuisances like hacking of emails and social media accounts, data hijacking through online access, posting of fake, tampered and pornographic images in social media have made cyber police station a bare necessity in the district, denizens asserted.
PNN