Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday announced the creation of a special wing under the Odisha police to probe offences against women and children.

While addressing the valedictory session of the Odisha senior police commissioners’ conference, Patnaik said that this initiative aims at curbing crimes against women and children. He also said that quality services will be made available to women and children through this initiative.

The announcement came amid the outrage over the alleged rape and murder of a 5-year-old minor girl in Nayagarh in July, followed by a ‘shoddy’ investigation by the local police into the case.

As many as 23,183 cases involving crime against women were registered in Odisha in 2019 as against 20,274 such cases in 2018, as per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report.

The official data from the report placed Odisha at second place after Uttar Pradesh to have witnessed most number of cases relating to molestation of women in the state.

The NCRB data also revealed the increasing crime rates reported against children in Odisha. In 2017, altogether 3,185 cases on crime against children were registered in the state. The total cases increased from 5,217 in 2018 to 7,012 in 2019, as per official data.

The chief minister expressed his concern over low conviction rates and directed that all possible steps be taken to enhance the rate by factoring in modern technology into the investigation.

Apart from this, he also asked the police to conduct special drives organized crimes and extortion racket.

He urged State Police to come up with new ideas to improve its image by providing quality services.

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