Naveen asks Orissa police to honour human rights

Cuttack, Feb 3 (PTI) Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaiktoday asked senior police officers in the state to honourhuman rights and uphold the dignity of general public whileperforming their official duties.

����"Orissa police has a track record of tolerant andinclusive policing to handle conflicts and law and ordersituations. I would like to reemphasize that all possible careshould be taken to honour human rights and more importantlyuphold the dignity of general public," Patnaik told seniorpolice officers while addressing the valedictory session of55th IPS officers� conference here.

�����Addressing the IPS conference, Chief Minister however,spoke high of operational coordination between Central andState police forces with adoption of unified command instrengthening anti-naxalite operations.

He said there has been a decline in Maoist-relatedviolence in the state during 2010 in comparison to previousyear and made a special mention of the achievement of theunified command in recent days.

"During last three months, security forces have conductedas many as 214 special operations and have achievedconsiderable success," he said adding that during this period91 Maoists are arrested, 24 are killed and 54 weapons havebeen seized from them.

Reiterating that his government is committed to policemodernization, the chief minister emphasized on upgradingprofessional skills in the police force to take on theemerging challenges of investigation of terrorist relatedcases, economic offences, cyber crime and organized crime.

Patnaik also disclosed that his government is in theprocess of establishing a special task force (STF) in thestate crime branch to effectively tackle organized crime andto deal with serious economic offences.