By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, August 27, 2015: The Odisha Assembly on Thursday passed four Bills in the absence of the members from the opposition parties, who were demanding discussion on few clauses of certain Bills.

These Bills are Odisha Police Bill, Odisha Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Bill-2015, Odisha Municipal Corporation and Odisha Municipal Act (Amendment) Bill. The Police Bill proposes a fixed tenure of at least two years for Director General of Police (DGP) and other key police functionaries.

“The proposed legislation aims at redefining the role of police, their duties and responsibilities taking into account the emerging challenges of policing and security of the State,” said Parliamentary Affairs Minister Bikram Keshari Arukh who introduced the Bill on behalf of chief minister Naveen Patnaik.

The Bill seeks to consolidate the provisions of the Police Act, 1861 and Odisha State Armed Police Act, 1946 in a single legislation for better police administration in the State.
The Bill not only proposes autonomy through security of tenure but also aims at streamlining appointment and transfer processes.

Odisha Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Bill, 2015 was also passed in the House making land grabbing a “cognizable” offence.

Earlier on May 26, the state government had promulgated the Odisha Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Ordinance, 2015 after President’s assent. It has provisions of imprisonment for one to seven years besides penalty against offenders.

By June last year, over 45,000 acres land is encroached either by groups or by individual, sources in the revenue department said. Keeping the trend in the organised attempts to grab government land, the government moved the legislation, sources said. The bill has provision to set up special courts to deal with land grabbing cases, sources said. The court will have the status of a ‘civil court’.

Any individual or group illegally occupying government land, trying to sell it, making efforts to sell it or illegally doing construction work on it action will be punished under the bills.