Bhubaneswar: Even though Odisha Police releases advisories to spread awareness and sensitise police on significant issues, the instructions often fail to achieve the desired goals thanks to the lackadaisical approach of the cops towards execution of the advisories.
The Commissionerate Police not taking any action with regard to keeping vigil on educational institutions to curb the increasing number of students falling prey to criminal activities, even after six months of issuance of the advisory, is a fresh example of the callousness of the police.
The rising number of students getting involved in criminal incidents has been a major concern for the government and police. Students pursuing professional courses are often involved in grave crimes like kidnapping and murder.
While answering a question in the Assembly December 11, 2017, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had revealed that around 351 students of technical institutions were arrested for criminal activities from 2014 to 2017.
The Chief Minister also revealed that 86 students were booked for involvement in criminal activities in 2014. The figure remained 46 in 2015 while it reached 96 in 2016. The number touched a staggering 123 till November 2017.
Out of that in Bhubaneswar only 79 technical students were booked for criminal activities in 2014, 41 were arrested in 2015, 67 in 2016 and 75 till November 30, 2017.
Similarly, another report mentions that between 2007 and 2017 around 165 cases were registered against engineering students. During the same period 744 students were arrested on various criminal charges.
In the wake of rising cases of crime committed by young students from various colleges especially technical institutions, DGP RP Sharma had issued an advisory to the SPs and Deputy Commissioners of Police January 16.
The advisory was aimed at making educational institutions crime-free zones. However, the police have not taken any step till now. The advisory laid out 31 recommendations to be followed by the authorities of the educational institutions, police officials and parents of the students. Of these points, 12 are for the police officials.
The police were instructed to organise orientation camps in various colleges in order to sensitise the students about crime related issues. However, it is learnt that no such programme was held in the colleges in the Capital by the Commissionerate Police.
Speaking to Orissa POST, Bhubaneswar DCP Anup Sahu feigned his ignorance about such orientation programmes in educational institutions. Moreover, we don’t keep any record of such events at the DCP’s office. The officers at the respective police stations could reveal about such orientation programmes.
Bimal Jena, development officer of Kalinga Institute of Industrial and Technology (KIIT) said, “Commissionerate Police has not contacted the college authorities for any orientation programmes in sensitising the students about criminal activities. However, the RTO officials recently contacted us for a camp on safe driving.”
Similarly, Partha Sarathi, a faculty member of Koustuv School of Engineering at Patia, said, “An awareness programme was held at Unit-IV on the menace of ‘Blue Whale’ game by the police last year in which we participated. However, none from the Commissionerate Police contacted us in connection with any such program in the last six months after issuance of the advisory in January.”
These are not isolated cases. The fact is the same in all other institutions in the City as well.
The police were also instructed to intensify patrolling by PCR vans near the educational institutions and deploy cops in mufti to nab the mischief mongers and eve teasers.
However, Soubhagya Soumyashree Samal, the student union president of Rama Devi Women’s University said, “We have never seen police or PCR vans around the campus. We have neither come across any incident when eve teasers were caught by the police in civil dress while patrolling around the university. Police come after getting a call from us.”
DGP RP Sharma during his stint as the commissioner of the twin-city had stated that a database of students pursuing technical courses would be kept by the Commissionerate Police. However, this remains unfulfilled till now as well.
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