Bhubaneswar, May 10: The state government today tabled white paper on the law and order situation amid pandemonium in the Assembly though chief minister Naveen Patnaik sought to break the impasse between the BJD and the Opposition by taking part in the Speaker's all-party meeting.
The white paper, which paints a rosy picture, claims that Maoist menace in the state has been brought under control with only 72 incidents of rebel violence taking place in 2015, in which 26 people lost their lives. Of these, nine were the Maoists and four were members of security forces. During this period, as many as 53 rebels gave up arms and the police seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition from them.
As soon as the Assembly proceedings began today, the Opposition members trooped into the Well, demanding the resignation of Justice M.M. Das, the head of the money deposit collection scam commission, for his controversial remarks. They also demanded the chief minister's statement on the issue of Rs 8 crore received from Aditya Birla-backed General Electoral Trust on a single day in the BJD account.
As the chaos continued, Speaker Niranjan Pujari adjourned the House and called an all-party meeting to break the impasse. The chief minister, who had been avoiding all-party meetings for the past three days, today attended the meeting. Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra said: "We had a meeting with the chief minister. We hope the Speaker will call another round of meeting on this issue."
Government chief whip Anant Das said: "Because of some legal problem, the issue of Justice M.M. Das cannot be taken up for discussion on the floor of the Assembly. We are hopeful that the Opposition will co-operate and the House will resume its normal functioning from tomorrow."
According to the white paper, 2,286 cases of rape, 1473 of murder, 486 dacoities, 1,787 loots, 4,046 snatching, 10,055 theft, 2,935 fraud, 1,976 riots, 76 cases of suicide and 3,634 dowry torture cases were registered last year.
As many as 2,504 cases of torture on the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe people were recorded in 2015. While 1,816 torture cases have been filed against the Scheduled Caste people, 688 cases registered against the Scheduled Tribe people, the white paper stated. Besides, 10,449 cases of accidents also took place during the period.
Mishra slammed the government for hiding information about the state's crime. "Incidents of rape have increased in the state. The overall law and order situation has deteriorated. The state has also failed to check the rate of crime with criminals moving scot-free," he said.
The BJP also criticised the state white paper.
"They are calling it a white paper, but it does not reflect the crimes truthfully. The government should not beat its own drum in the matter and the chief minister should not take any credit for this," said BJP legislature party leader Basant Panda.
Defending the government, BJD spokesperson Amar Satpathy said: "The state police have been successful in checking crime. Compared to other states, the over all crime rate in Odisha is quite low. The state police have been able to arrest dreaded criminals such as Dhal Samant brothers and former MLA Ramesh Jena."
