Bhubaneswar: Following the widespread concern over the plight of the job aspirants roaming on the streets of the Capital city, the Commissionerate Police, Monday, provided an open field to the Army for setting up temporary accommodations for the aspirants. Earlier, several alert denizens posted on social media the sorry sight of the aspirants sleeping on footpaths and railway platforms.
They also tagged the state government authorities including the Commissioner of Police in the social media posts. The Commissionerate Police, after holding discussions with the officials of the 120 TA Army Battalion, have provided an open field to set up temporary shelters for the job aspirants who came to the Capital city from various states like Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.
Tweeting about the decision, CP Sudhanshu Sarangi said, “Army Recruitment Rally at 120 TA Bn. We have discussed with the Army authorities and have provided them with an open ground to set up tents for temporary shelter. We are happy to assist them in any other way but we can’t interfere in their processes.”
Earlier, the Commissionerate Police arranged for accommodations for around 500 students in the nearby Kalinga stadium.
However, around 10,000 to 20,000 aspirants have come to the Capital city to take part in the Army recruitment rally for around 80 posts. Talking to Orissa POST, one of the aspirants said, “We have not been provided with accommodation or water. We slept on the footpaths in the heavy rain, Sunday, night. The local administration even failed to provide us with enough temporary lavatory facilities as well.”
Meanwhile, Biswapriya Kanungo, along with a few lawyers of Bhubaneswar Bar Association, Monday lodged a complaint with National Human Rights Commission in this regard. The lawyers urged the commission to instruct the 120 Battalion and Chief Secretary of Odisha to immediately provide them temporary accommodation and other facilities for sanitation.
The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) was left clueless with the sudden influx of aspirants. With no information on public urinals, applicants have even complained of ‘dearth of restrooms to answer nature’s calls.’
However a source at the BMC said, “We were not informed by other departments about the aspirants coming up for any sort of recruitment. A meeting would have been conducted amongst the officials and arrangements could have been made accordingly.”