Jalandhar :DGP Gaurav Yadav on Saturday maintained that there would be no direct recruitment to the posts of Inspector in the Punjab Police as had been decided earlier.
Yadav said this in response to a question raised by Congress MLA Tript Rajinder Bajwa in the Vidhan Sabha on Friday. Bajwa had pointed out that instead of Inspectors, only Sub-Inspectors were being recruited now, who could be elevated only up to the post of SP. The DGP was at the Punjab Armed Police headquarters here to attend the Police Commemoration Day this morning. “There shall be no recruitment to the level of Inspector and a very conscious decision had been taken on the matter. In other states too, appointments are being made at three levels. It was just in Punjab that there had been recruitment at all levels, including that of a constable, ASI, SI, Inspector and DSP. The decision has been taken to take care of issues like cadre structure, stagnation and promotional aspects,” he said.
On the police action after the ardas, the DGP said, “Our force had started acting right after the CM made announcement of drug-free Punjab on August 15 last year. We are following a three-phase programme of enforcement, de-addiction and prevention. Our teams have been reaching out to vulnerable sections and holding village-level meetings in the last two months. We have been after the big fish and seizing their properties too.”
Elaborating on the proposed Sadak Surkhya Force (SSF), Yadav said, “To set up the road safety force, we have reserved 1,500 recently recruited personnel from the PAP. They are being provided capsule training. They will have a distinct uniform also. We have also placed orders for 121 Toyota Hilux cars. We will be using 28 SUVs as interceptor vehicles. A vehicle will be placed at a distance of 30 km and will reach the point from where a distress call is received.”
Yadav said the police had sacrificed its 1,797 officials, including three this year, since September 1981. The names of all 189 martyrs of this year, including Mandeep Singh, Kuldeep Singh, Parminder Singh of the Punjab Police, who died while fighting gangsters, were read out by Commandant of the 80th Battalion Navjot Singh Mahal. A two-minute silence was observed and, later, senior officials laid wreaths at the martyrs’ memorial.
