For show

Bhubaneswar, April 2: The sight of armed police personnel patrolling the streets is becoming increasingly rare in many parts of the state. In certain areas in the Maoist-dominated belt, it is even difficult to sight the men in uniform.

One of the main reasons, sources said, was lack of adequate sophisticated arms with the force.

The latest report of auditor and comptroller general (CAG) stated that even sentry posts in Jeypore and Koraput Sadar police stations were being used to park bicycles. Things appear bad because the weapons have been gathering rust in the district armouries.

The CAG, which has conducted test checks in eight districts, said sophisticated weapons worth Rs 14.80 crore were lying idle in the central arms store in Cuttack. The situation seems frightening considering that 18 out the state’s 30 districts are hit by the Maoist menace.

The CAG has also castigated the police modernisation drive. “The shortage of trained manpower to handle sophisticated weapons in test-checked districts is 78 per cent,” the report for the year ending March 2011 stated.

In 36 police districts, despite the availability of 28,814 weapons valued at Rs 35.18 crore in the armouries, they were not issued to the police stations and outposts on the ground of non-availability of trained staff to handle those.

Records of 48 test-checked police stations and outposts in eight police districts revealed that while no weapons were available in 13 police stations, one pistol each was available in three police stations, modern weapons such as AK- 47 rifles (5) were available in only two police stations and INSAS rifles (26) were available only in one police station. In the eight test-checked police districts, 2,796 modern weapons were available against the required 7,221.