Palamu police range is seriously toying with the idea of going for Community Policing. Under this programme, it first wants to start football and cricket tournament in the interior areas of this police range.
DIG police Palamu range Saket Kumar Singh said sports not only united but also fostered a sense of healthy competition and police in this range would try to tab this potentiality among the age group of 18 to 25 which was highly vulnerable to going astray. Palamu’s villages were dotted with games like foot ball, cricket and hockey. Chainpur police station, in this range, is where girls play hockey. Similarly, Mahuadarn is another police station where this game is popular. Organising, promoting and participating in rural games by police would be given a fillip, said DIG who is all out to minimise the gap between the community and the police. Sources said in this poverty stricken police range of Palamu, a trophy ‘khassi’ (goat) is given to the winner team. Khassi is brought on the playground with a rope and it is the rope that is given to the winning team amidst loud cheers and shouting. Saket said, “During my stint as SP Simdega and Garhwa districts I have this Khassi tournament held in the districts where the winning team is given goat while the losing one is made to content with football or cricket bat.”
Saket reminded one episode while during a checking of traffic violation he caught hold of a youth who immediately presented himself as a recipient of an award given by him sometime back and Saket said the youth was not telling lies as he too recognised him.
The winning team killed the khassi (goat) and then a feast was held where the villagers belonging to the winning team also joined the food. DIG wants this kind of tournament within the district of the range.