Odisha's Patapur police station selected as best in India

Berhampur: Patapur police station in Odisha's Ganjam district has been selected as one of the three best police stations in the country in 2024 by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), officials said.

Union Home minister Amit Shah will hand over the trophy to the inspector-in-charge of the police station in the convention of the Director Generals of Police, scheduled to be held at Bhubaneswar from November 29 to December 1.

Joint Director and conference secretary, Intelligence Bureau of the MHA, Samir S IIme has written a letter to Odisha Director General of Police, Y B Khurania about the selection of Patapur as the best police station in the country, they said.

The ranking of police stations across the country is an annual exercise by the MHA, with the stations judged on the basis of over 150 different parameters like crime rate, investigation and disposal of cases, infrastructure, and delivery of public service. About 20 per cent of the total points are also based on feedback about the police station from citizens, they said.

The main objective of the ranking was to improve the quality of policing and make the police stations as friendly.

"We are very happy as our police station stands as one of the three best police stations in the country. It could be possible due to the teamwork of the staff", said SP(Ganjam), Suvendu Kumar Patra.

A team of the MHA had visited the 113-year-old Patapur police station on September 28 to assess its infrastructure facilities, said Sanjay Kumar Mohapatra, Sub-Divisional Police Officer, Aska.

The team had also taken feedback from the public about the community policing and functioning of the station, officials said.

Besides performance on detection, disposal of various crimes, enforcement, steps taken to prevent crimes, implementation of the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and System (CCTNS), the police station also has good infrastructure facilities like women and child desk, child-friendly corner, toilets, fire safety measures and open gym for the public.