Police block roads and check vehicles in Bhubaneswar. Pictures by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, June 28: A police exercise of checking vehicles by putting up barricades on roads to curb incidents of loot and snatching is troubling commuters.

People are complaining that the barricades are set up at places where there is insufficient light and motorists have to halt suddenly when the police ask them to do so.

“The barricades have been put up in a dark patch on the road where it’s hard to spot them at night. When the policemen try to stop a motorcycle, the riders often negotiate the patch dangerously to avoid them and create problems for others,” said Prashant Badapanda, an advocate.

A youth was injured today when he tried to flee from the cops in front of Kharavela Nagar police station.

The cops tried to stop Chandan Sahu, 30, a resident of Acharya Vihar, near Gurudwara on Janpath, because he was not wearing a helmet.

“He tried to avoid us and flee, but his two-wheeler skidded and he hurt himself. He was immediately taken to a nearby hospital and his condition is stable,” said a police officer. The police procured these barricades from various corporate houses including banks, mobile service providers and other business establishments. A senior police officer said the corporate houses provided the barricades under their corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes.

Lately, the police have been facing flak for not being able to control crime with an increase in snatching, bike-lifting, theft, dacoity and robbery cases in the twin cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.

The official crime figures of the cities in the first five months this year showed an increase of around 12 per cent as compared to last year.

During January to May in 2012, 3,184 cases had been registered. This year, that figure is 3,589.

Goons have struck in busy localities and close to police stations.

Inspector in charge of Kharavela Nagar police station Manoj Samant said they were conducting the exercises to keep a check on crime.

“This will create fear among criminals and the number of criminal activities will come down to some extent,” he said.