Odisha Police’s Highway Patrol Plan Hits Corona Wall

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Police has clarified that a plan to launch highway patrolling on five accident-prone stretches remains a non-starter due to COVID-19 and the consequent lockdown.

The clarification came after the state transport department pulled up police headquarters for failing to utilise the Rs 10 crore funds it had allocated for appointing patrolling staff and purchase vehicles for the project in August last year.

Notably, police had identified Bhubaneswar-Puri (60 km), Sambalpur-Sohela (72 km), Manguli-Sambalpur (265 km), Jaleswar-Icchapuram (440 km) and Sambalpur-Rourkela (130) roads for highway patrolling.

In January, the government had approved the appointment of 119 retired police personnel for the project. “However, the selection and appointment process was deferred on March 21 in view of the COVID-19 outbreak. We will start the process soon,” the Times of India quoted a senior police officer as saying.

According to sources in the transport department, police may have to refund the allocated money if they don’t utilise it at the earliest.

Earlier, Transport Secretary Madhusudan Padhi had prompted police to roll out the highway patrolling project at the earliest in compliance with a Supreme Court directive. “The Supreme Court committee on road safety has directed the state government to submit a compliance report on implementation of highway patrol by July 31. A compliance in this regard may kindly be submitted by June 15,” Padhi wrote to the police headquarters.