Cuttack: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday urged the state's police force to work to build public confidence. He said the police had the responsibility to inspire confidence among the public by taking people-oriented approaches.

"Police is the friend of the public. To build public confidence, the state police should strive to ensure justice even to the poorest in the society," Naveen said while addressing the 83rd Odisha Police Formation Day parade on the Reserve Police Ground here.

Calling upon the state police to take strong measures to curb crimes against women, Naveen underscored the need for the women cells in the offices of district police superintendents and active women and child desks in the police stations.

He also expected the reception desks of the inspectors of all the police stations to be "more active".

Naveen said economic offences and cyber crimes posed major challenges for the law enforcement force. "To tackle them, cyber crime police stations have been opened in Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Rourkela, Berhampur and Sambalpur. Steps are being taken to open cyber crime police stations in more districts," he added.

Pointing out that steps were being taken for state police force's capacity building along with modernisation and upgrade of infrastructure development, Naveen said his government was also committed to the welfare of the police personnel.

Director general of police R.P. Sharma stressed on setting up model police stations and women counselling centres in the districts and adoption of a people-friendly policing approach. Sharma asked the force to be more public-oriented, efficient, transparent, and empathetic.

On the occasion, Naveen gave away awards for meritorious service to 10 police personnel - inspectors Arun Kumar Swain, Raisen Murmu and Kalpana Sahu, subedar Bidyadhar Sethi, sub-inspector Bhawani Prasad Mishra, assistant sub-inspector Prakash Chandra Dalai, havildar Jenamani Bhoi and constables Santosh Kumar Chualsingh, Dusmanta Kumar Parida and Jiogre Lakra.