Bhubaneswar, April 13: With Bhubaneswar turning 63 on Wednesday, the crime profile of the city has gone up by notches. It reflects the stark socio-demographic changes of the city. Tackling crime at present poses a major challenge to the police.

Earlier, when Bhubaneswar had a population of merely 20,000, crimes were limited to thefts and burglaries. Even there were rare reports of robberies.

The crime profile of the city has changed drastically. Hiring contract killers, land grabbing, drug peddling, sex trade, kidnapping for ransom and cyber crimes have become the order of the day. The idea of an underworld, which was once alien to the city, has now gained ground.

According to Gopal Nanda, former director-general of police (DGP), during 70s Bhubaneswar had only two police stations — Lingaraj and Capital police stations. But now Bhubaneswar alone has 20 police stations including separate police stations for women, traffic regulation and energy.

“Crime profile has undergone a major change during the last four decades,” said Nanda. Talking about land grabbing, he said the growing price of land in the recent times had given rise to several land disputes in the city. “People are taking it as a lucrative and easy way to earn money. So they resort to criminal activities to grab the opportunity. The city police are now facing an uphill task to deal with such crime,” said Nanda.

Easy availability of sophisticated weapons has increased power of the criminals .

According the former police DGP, B. B. Mishra, illegal arms from other states and neighbouring countries are coming into the city. “Most of the criminals have access to such weapons,” he said.

About more and more youths taking to crime, both the former police officers said that high cost of living in the city and the middle class background of the youths was responsible for this scenario.

“Earlier we were dealing with simple cases of theft and dacoity. Now things have changed,” said Siddharth Das, a senior advocate. He said that tender fixing which was not earlier in the city became a form of crime and people were killed for this.

Sociologists also feel urbanisation and consumerism have pushed up crime. “Bhubaneswar that was earlier a conservative society have become a permissive society. Growing anonymity is also facilitating crime,” said sociologist D. N. Jena.