By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, June 28, 2017 : The Odisha government on Wednesday approved an action plan for 2017-18 to spend Rs 45 crore for police modernization, with the focus on strengthening the anti-Maoist and anti-criminal operations.

The state-level empowered committee meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Aditya Parsad Padhi approved the action plan of Rs 31.75 crore for police modernization.

The additional action plan for utilisation of Rs 13.18 crore incentive grant received from the centre for better performance in 2016-17 was also approved at the meeting.

The scheme is funded both by Govt of India and Govt of Odisha on 60:40 basis.

Padhi said the plan was prepared for strengthening the anti-Maoist operations and regular police operations.

Earlier, Padhi directed the Police department to focus on strengthening the evidence building system at Police Station level for enhancing the conviction rate. He also suggested to procure those equipment which would help the investigating officers in collection and scrutiny of the evidences from a crime situation which would help in tracking the criminals and enhancing the rate of conviction.