Mamata announces increase in award money for recipients of police medals

In a bid to encourage the police force, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday decided to increase the award money for the recipients of Sewa Padak, Prasangsha Padak and Nistha Padak.

Surajit Kar Purakayastha, Director General of Police, made the announcement in the presence of the Chief Minister on Thursday during the jointly held felicitation ceremony of Kolkata Police and West Bengal Police.

Recipients of Nistha Padak, Prasangsha Padak and Sewa Padak will be getting Rs 50,000, Rs 40,000 and Rs 25,000 respectively. The award money for the best investigating officers have also been increased to Rs 50,000.

The Chief Minister further said that there is a need to bring about a change in the uniform of the West Bengal Police as the police have to look smarter.

She also said that the people have to change their attitude towards the police. It is not right to pelt stones and bombs at the police, said Banerjee while addressing the gathered crowd.

"One may commit mistakes but it has to be rectified. We have to keep in mind that 0.1 percent could be bad but rest perform their duty with diligence," she said after recollecting the name of a police officer, Gurupada Som, who had saved her during an agitation during the regime of the erstwhile Left Front government.

"The workload of the police has gone up a lot as the nature of crime has also changed. Today's situation is not that the police only have to perform duty on field. They also have to work to tackle cyber crime. People now commit crimes after watching television serials. So it is my duty to look after the family members of those who are working for the state," she said adding that both Kolkata Police and West Bengal Police has to be the best police force in the world. On Thursday, two police officers have been honoured with Sourya Padaks, seven with Nistha Padaks for serving the police for more than 25 years, 51 policemen got Prasangsha Padaks and 88 received Sewa Padaks.

Four police officers have received the Chief Minister's award for best investigation. Nadia has become the best district in the terms of policing and Andal received the best police station award. North Division is the best division in Kolkata and Kolkata Police's Reserve Force has become the best unit of the force. In Kolkata, Haridevpur has been awarded as the best police station and Shyambazar as the best traffic guard.