Bhubaneswar, March 10: Residents of Bankual and Koradkanta on the city outskirts have been travelling around 14 km to lodge complaints at Saheed Nagar police station despite having three police stations located nearby.

Though the nearest police station at Badagada was set up in 1982, these areas continue to be under Saheed Nagar police station.

Such haphazard locations have been causing problems to the residents.

"We have to cross Badagada, Mancheswar and Laxmisagr police station to reach Saheed Nagar. It causes a lot of problems, especially during emergencies," said Abhaya Das, a resident of Bankual.

In order to plug such loopholes, the police officials are holding meetings with the residents of the areas concerned.

Three police-public interfaces were held yesterday at Saheed Nagar, Balipatna and Tamando police stations where residents urged the cops to reorganise the jurisdictions.

Following requests from the residents, the police officials have finally decided to work towards reorganising the jurisdiction of various police stations.

Deputy commissioner of police, Satyabrata Bhoi said: "We will send a proposal of reorganisation of police station areas to the state police headquarter shortly," said Bhoi.

The cops, too, expressed concern over the distance factor. "It takes us around 30 minutes to reach Bankual and even longer during heavy traffic. It also affects night patrolling," said a police official. Similar meetings would also be held in other police stations, he said.

The need for reorganisation of the jurisdiction has become necessary due to rapid expansion of the city and the growing population.

Khandagiri police station, which was set up in 1983, covers an area of 70 sqkm. It caters to 2.75 lakh residents, while Tamando police station, which was created taking the areas of Khandagiri and Chandaka police stations, caters to only 20,000 residents. Such discrepancies cause a lot of problems in effective policing.

"In 2015, as many as 688 cases were registered in Khandagiri police station, while only 132 were registered with Tamando police station. The public-police ratio in Tamando is around 1,000:1, while that in Khandagiri is 3,350:1. So, there must be a reorganisation of the police station areas," said a senior police official.

Commissionerate police which came into existence in 2008 has set up four new police stations - Infocity, Nandankanan, Tamando and Dhauli - to meet the growing demand.

As many as 22 police stations are at present in Bhubaneswar Urban Police District out of which Mahila, Energy and Traffic police stations have all police station jurisdiction.