With 32 police medals for gallantry, Jammu and Kashmir tops the list this year

NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir police walked away with the highest number of police medals for gallantry this year, with its personnel bagging 32 of the total 100 awards announced on Tuesday. Interestingly, one J&K officer was conferred two medals for having displayed valour “beyond his call of normal duties” in separate counter-terror operations.
While all state police together bagged 78 gallantry medals, 22 gallantry medals went to the Central forces, of which CRPF alone accounted for 16.Interestingly, constables and head constables walked away with 55% of the gallantry medals, even as the list featured just one IPS officer.
Ten gallantry awards were conferred posthumously, of which four went to Chattisgarh police personnel, two to Jharkhand police and one each to Assam police, CRPF, BSF and SSB.
As many as 777 police medals were announced on Republic Day eve this year, which included 100 police gallantry medals, 597 police medals for meritorious service and 80 President's police medal for distinguished service. No person was awarded the President’s Police Medal for Gallantry (PPMG) this year with the government failing to find any deserving case.
For police gallantry medals, the home ministry received 137 recommendations covering 55 cases. However, only 100 medals involving 37 cases showed up in the final list.
Of the 78 state police personnel honoured for gallantry, 32 belong to J&K, 12 to Andhra Pradesh, 9 Jharkhand, 7 each to UP and Chhattisgarh, 4 each to Assam and Manipur and 3 to Delhi. The break-up of gallantry medals won by the Central forces reads 16 for CRPF, 5 for BSF and 1 for SSB.
The stress on recognising the competence of lower level police officers is evident from the fact that 55% of the gallantry medals, 62.8% of police medals for meritorious service and 25% of president's police medals for distinguished service went to constables or head-constables. The home ministry on Tuesday said there has been significant increase in percentage of police officers of lower ranks rewarded for meritorious service and distinguished service. “This is in recognition of distinguished service rendered by such police personnel who work in adverse conditions,” said a home ministry official.
In contrast, the percentage of IPS officers conferred these awards was 1% in case of police gallantry medals, 2.5% for police medals for meritorious service and 23.7% for President's police medals for distinguished service.
Among individual awardees, three cases stand out. One, Manipur police officer P Sanjoy Singh who has won a gallantry award for the 8th time in his career. He was honoured this year for a commando operation undertaken in January 2015, that resulted in neutralisation of two insurgents.
Second case is that of IPS officer from Assam Sunil Kumar, the only bureaucrat to be awarded a gallantry medal this year. He led an operation that led to killing of 4 NDFB cadres in Kokrajhar in 2014.
Third individual case is that of J&K police officer Nazir Ahmad Kuchey, who has won twin gallantry medals this year. The two cases where his valour has been recognised relate to killing of a dreaded militant in Pulwama in 2014 and a 2015 encounter that resulted in neutralisation of two terrorists, also in Pulwama.