Bhubaneswar, Oct. 12: More and more people are taking the law into their hands.

A string of recent incidents are testimony to the growing intolerance among people, which is resulting in frequent breach of peace.

There have been cases of corporate officials being beaten up. Headmistresses and doctors are also being manhandled. Candidates reporting for interviews are not being spared either as was the case in Kandhamal recently.

Candidates coming from other parts of the state were beaten up for daring to turn up to take the test for the posts of shikshya sahayikas.

Police officers attribute this phenomenon to the lack of adequate manpower with the police and growing regional disparity in terms of socio-economic development.

In the latest incident today, the vice-president of Bhusan Steel, Sateesh Tyagi, was assaulted in Dhenkanal by a Kalinga Sena activist. This happened while Tyagi was attending a district-level meeting, which was presided over by the collector, to discuss the employment situation.

The meeting was going on smoothly till the youth wing president of the Kalinga Sena, Priyabrata Gadanayak, intervened and sought to know why Bhusan Steel had failed to recruit local residents. When Tyagi demanded that Gadnayak introduce himself, the latter slapped him.

While Gadnayak has been arrested, Kaling Sena State unit president, Hemanta Rath, said: “We are demanding that companies working in Dhenkanal-Angul belt should reserve 80 per cent of the jobs for displaced local residents and landlosers.”

Former director-general of police Gopal Nanda said: “Political, social and economic situation are mainly responsible for people taking the law into their hands. This happens because of inadequate police. The strength of police must be reviewed from time to time.”

He said in rural areas there were barely eight to 10 cops in each police station, but they have to provide security to nearly 70,000 to 80,000 people.

Besides the need for a better police system, Nanda said growing political intolerance and the tendency to get rich quickly was also responsible for the recent spate of incidents spate of incidents.