Ten police officers in West Bengal will be awarded with chief minister's police medal on the Independence Day, in recognition of their services. The medal was set up by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in 2014, three years after she assumed office for the first time.
The first batch of officers who had received medal from her included Rajeev Kumar, Bharati Ghosh, S.M.H. Meerza, Surajit Kar Purkayastha, Siddhinath Gupta and D.P. Singh. While Kumar, Purkayastha and Gupta were recipients of outstanding awards, Singh and Ghosh received chief minister’s medal for commendable service. It is to be noted that Kumar got embroiled in legal tangle in Saradha chit fund case, Meerza is one of the accused in Narada scam and presently under suspension, and Ghosh is now a prominent BJP leader. Purkayastha is, however, security adviser of the state and Gupta and Singh are senior police officers.
This year, the names of those receiving the awards suggest that the selection of officers were more careful. The first type of award, the chief minister’s police medal for outstanding service, will be given to three officers. The second type is chief minister’s police medal for commendable service, which will be seven IPS officers.
The award has been approved by the West Bengal governor.
The medal for outstanding service will be given to Kolkata Police Commissioner Soumen Mitra, an IPS of 1988 batch who will retire this year. Mitra was made commissioner of police months before the assembly elections and was not in the good books of the ruling party for long.
The officers selected for outstanding service include Piyush Pandey, a 1993 batch officer, now working as additional director general of police, correctional service. Pandey was under central deputation after the left government was voted out of power in 2011.
Both Mitra and Pandey are known to be officers of high integrity.
D.P. Singh, the 2002 batch IPS officer, who is IGP North Bengal, will be awarded again.
The chief minister’s police medal for commendable service will be awarded to Anand Kumar, IGP, CID; Syed Waqar Raza, Joint Commissioner of police, Kolkata; Sumit Kumar, SP of Cooch Behar; Bhaskar Mukherjee, SP of Sunderbans; Amarnath K, SP of Purba Medinipur; Dinesh Kumar, SP of Paschim Medinipur; and Aparajita Rai, DC, STF, who is the only lady officer found place in the list of awardees. Except Bhaskar Mukherjee, everyone has been directly recruited IPS and under the DOPT of the Prime Minister’s office. Mukherjee is an officer of state police service.
Banerjee’s awards to IPS are seen as a equivalent to the Union home minister awarding the top IPS officers of the country.