Bhubaneswar: On the occasion of 71st Republic Day on Sunday, as many as 60 officers and men from Odisha Police and 10 from Fire Service, Home Guards & Civil Defence were decorated with medals in different categories by Governor Prof Ganeshi Lal in the presence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in the Investiture Ceremony at Convention Hall of Lok Seba Bhawan here.
While 23 policemen received the Police Medal for Gallantry, two received the President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service, 11 received the Police Medal for Meritorious Service and 14 received the Governor’s Medal.
Puri SP Umashankar Dash, who received the Governor’s Medal said, “I dedicate the medal to all my police brothers and sisters of Puri district. It is recognition of the work done by Puri police throughout the year, let it be FANI or Rath Yatra. I thank the State Government and Odisha Police for the recognition.”
Chief Secretary Asit Kumar Tripathy congratulated the Police Medal for Gallantry award winners saying it is in recognition of their success in anti-Naxal operations in Left Wing Extremists (LWE) areas. He asserted that the winners of Gallantry awards receive many incentives from the Indian Government and they deserve it.
Odisha Police DGP Abhay said, while 23 policemen have received the Police Medal for Gallantry today, names of 16 more have been announced to receive the same on Independence Day 2020. Speaking about the other medal winners, the DGP said that there are approximately 75,000 policemen in the State out of which only 40 to 50 receive the medals. He praised all the medal winners, congratulated them and expressed his gratefulness.
Likewise, one from Fire Service received the President’s Fire Service Medal for Distinguished Service, five others received the Fire Service Medal for Meritorious Service, two each from Home Guards and Civil Defence received the Home Guards & Civil Defence Medals for Meritorious Service.
After receiving the Fire Service Medal for Meritorious Service, Deputy Fire Officer Trilok Kumar Babu said, “The works assigned to us are challenging, let it be dealing with disaster or fire mishap. I feel proud to have joined this department and performing my duties well.”