Home secretary writes to states and UTs, asks them to hold functions to be attended by CM, governor or Lt Governor at Delhi’s National Police Memorial.
New Delhi: More than a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the National Police Memorial in the heart of Delhi, states are finalising their own dates to pay tributes to their respective police martyrs at the same venue.
The memorial has been built in honour of police personnel killed in the line of duty.
Earlier this month, Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba asked states and Union territories to fix a date to honour their police martyrs.
The move is significant in the background of the recent spate of attacks on police personnel in Jammu & Kashmir and Naxal-hit states such as Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
Also read: This 1959 incident in Ladakh is behind the Police Commemoration Day observed today
What MHA letter says
According to Gauba’s letter, state governments or Union territories should conduct a suitable function on the decided date at the National Police Memorial in Delhi’s Chanakyapuri to honour the police martyrs.
“Ideally, the Chief Minister and Governor/Lt. Governor should grace the occasion,” the letter said.
Gauba’s letter also said the memorial should be utilised by the states to recognise and pay tribute to the sacrifice made by their police personnel in discharge of their duties.
However, speaking to ThePrint, a senior bureaucrat from a state said: “It would have been better if all police martyrs were honoured on a single date, instead of 36 different dates.”
Among other activities suggested by the home secretary are making of short documentaries on police martyrs that can be telecast on national and regional television channels and posting video clips on social media.
The letter had also suggested that states organise street plays on the subject as well as performance by police bands at prominent public places on weekends.
Besides, the letter asks heads of police forces to write articles on police martyrs to be published in local journals on Police Commemoration Day on 21 October.
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Idea conceived during Vajpayee era
Modi had inaugurated the National Police Memorial on 21 October, which is observed as Police Commemoration Day, to pay homage to the policemen killed at Hot Springs in Ladakh by Chinese troops on 21 October, 1959.
Speaking at the function, Modi said the thought of dedicating such a police memorial to the country’s police force came up 25-26 years ago. The 30-feet tall memorial stands alongside an interactive digital museum in an area of 17,000 sq ft.
“Atalji’s government took the first step in turning the thought on ground level and the then Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani laid the foundation stone of the museum in 2002,” Modi had said, while blaming the previous UPA government for their “indifference” and “delay” in setting up the memorial.