The Centre on Tuesday announced a total of 939 service medals, including 189 for gallantry, for personnel of various Central and State police forces on the eve of Republic Day. However, no one has been awarded the topmost president's police medal for gallant(PPMG) this time.
Among the 189 gallantry awards, 134 personnel are being awarded for their gallant action in the Jammu and Kashmir region, 47 for their bravery in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected areas and one personnel for similar conduct in the north-east region.
The highest number of bravery medals, 115, have been awarded to the Jammu and Kashmir Police, followed by 30 to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), 10 to the Chhattisgarh Police, nine to the Odisha Police, seven to the Maharashtra Police, three each to the border guarding forces of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), and two to the Border Security Force (BSF), among others.
Eighty-eight personnel have been awarded the distinguished service medal while 662 have been given the meritorious service medal. 42 fire service medals, 37 correctional service medals for police personnel and 51 'Jeevan Rakshak Padak' were also announced. The 'Jeevan Rakshak' series of medals are given for meritorious act of human nature in saving the life of a person.
Sanjeev Kumar Yadav IPS of Delhi Police Cell is among the GallantryMedal winners. 53 personnel of the Border Security Force (BSF) have been decorated with various police service medals including gallantry decorations. Constables Anand Oraon and Sunder Singh have been awarded the PMG for thwarting smuggling bids by armed smugglers along the India-Bangladesh international border in West Bengal.
18 personnel of the India-China LAC guarding force Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) have been decorated with various police service medals including gallantry decorations.
The PMG has been given to the team of Assistant Commandant Ashok Kumar, Inspectors Suresh Lal and Neela Singh for neutralising two wanted Maoists during a fierce encounter in the left wing extremism-affected area of Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon district in February, 2018. A huge assortment of arms and ammunition was also recovered after the operation.
Among the distinguished service medal awardees is DIG Ajay Pal Singh who joined the mountain-warfare trained force as an officer in 1990. DIG Ramakant Sharma and GC Upadhyay have also been awarded the distinguished service medal.
CBI officers probing post poll violence cases in West Bengal besides the one who busted big bribery cases in Railways are among 29 agency sleuths awarded police medals. Joint Director Ramnish Geer, who led the probe in cases like housing scam allegedly involving the then Union minister Sheila Kaul, Naval war room leak case, kidnapping of an NRI businessman and his release besides other high profile anti-corruption cases, received the coveted President's Police Medal for Distinguished Service.
He was among the four CBI joint directors rushed from Delhi to West Bengal to oversee post poll violence cases reported in the state last year.