Bhubaneswar: The All Odisha Bus Owners’ Association (AOBOA) and Odisha State Truck Owner’s Federation (OSTOF) vehemently protested the proposal to grant additional powers to police personnel for vehicle checking across the State.
Earlier on May 30, the State Transport Commissioner had written to the Transport Secretary to delegate additional power to the police department for checking of motor vehicles in the state and impose fine against the traffic rule violators.
In a letter to Chief Minister Mohan Majhi, the both the associations appealed to reject the proposal to enhance the police power to check motor vehicles saying that such decision would unnecessarily increase corruption and the drivers will be harassed as it had happened earlier.
“The basic job of the police is to check crime, but we don’t find the reason why police personnel are more interested to check vehicles rather than devoting their time for crime control. There is a separate wing i.e. Orissa motor vehicles department to check the motor vehicles but why this motor vehicle department will not be strengthened to check the motor vehicles rather than to delegate the power to the police and by this process the police department is getting defamed. You will certainly agree with us that the image of the police before the public is not at all good even in different public meetings you have expressed your concern about the attitude of the police,” the OSTOF said.
“That in the event more powers are delegated to police that will lead to police harassment and corruption and unnecessarily the popular Govt. will be defamed. So we would like to request your goodself that the police power should be minimized to the extend of traffic control only and more power for checking of vehicles should not be delegated to police,” it added.
The associations also threatened to hit the street in case the proposal gets the State government’s approval.
