BENGALURU: Ninety police personnel, including IPS officers, received the prestigious President’s medal for their distinguished service from Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot at a ceremony held at the Raj Bhavan on Sunday.
The awards were announced by Union Home Ministry on the occasion of Republic Day and Independence Day in 2020 and 2021. They were conferred on senior IPS officers like Subramanyeshwar Rao, Arun Chakraborty, Anucheth and others.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Home Minster Araga Jnanendra, DG&IGP of Karnataka Praveen Sood, Additional Secretary to the Home Department, Rajneesh Goyal, and other senior officers participated in the programme.
Speaking on the occasion, Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot said, “I am very grateful to the police for their public service. The Karnataka Police are at the top in the entire country in providing good service, protecting and safeguarding people. The Karnataka Police are providing excellent service. The police have to work without considering time or personal problem. The police deparment is maintaining law and order and controlling criminal activities. The Karnataka government is also doing good work”, he noted.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, speaking on the occasion, said, “Police service is a special service and it changes the whole life. Policemen can’t lead a normal life. They have to make compromises in their own lives and their families too have to make many compromises. Police are working under extreme pressure. The Karnataka police are the Number One police in the entire country. Law is like the father and duty is like the mother, law should always be the ahead and crime cannot be allowed to lead law”.
Further, the CM said, “These days, most of the crimes involve advanced technology and we need to keep abreast of developments in technology. For this, we have modernised the FSL lab. Investigation of crimes is taking time due to inadequate number of forensic labs. At least two forensic labs should be established in every region so that crimes can be investigated more quickly. This work should be done by the department.”
The CM also had a word of warning for the police personnel. “The target given to you should be met and there will be no compromise on that. Corruption has crept into the recruitment process and necessary changes have to be brought in to curb such practices. Illegalities in recruitment will not be tolerated and if necessary, technology can be adopted to make the process more transparent”.
He further said, “Police training process of lower level and upper level is going on properly. But the police who are in middle should be trained as OM model. They will become higher officers. But the middle process should be get special training like NDA model, before they get to IPS officer. So they should be trained well and conduct refresh courses to them”.
Home Minister Araga Jnanendra said, “This is an inspiring programme. Our department staff works 24 hours a day. Such awards will encourage them to work more diligently. The officers should work with motivation and inspire other officers too. The Union Home Ministry has appreciated the Karnataka police. Our state is a model for the entire country”.
Further, Jnanendra said, “Thousands of houses are being built for the police. Our department is constructing own police stations, wherever they were working out of rented buildings. For this, about Rs 200 crore has been released. Fresh recruitments are being done for police sub-inspectors. Former CM B S Yediyurappa and the present CM Basavaraj Bommai’s governments have given maximum grants to the police department. Karnataka is peaceful today, for which the police are working day and night, and that is why we can take up development in the state”, he added.