855 officers honoured with R-Day Police Medals; CRPF tops

New Delhi (IANS) A total of 855 Central and state police personnel have been selected for Police Medals, including CRPF constables Mohd Yaseen Tali, Borase Dinesh Dipak and Jaswant Singh who died in 2017 while fighting with Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir.

The three have been posthumously selected for the President's Police Medal for Gallantry (PPMG) -- the highest police medal -- on the occasion of Republic Day on Saturday.

Tali, Dipak and Singh succumbed to their bullet injuries while trying to neutralize three terrorists who sneaked into a police complex with residential buildings in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir on August 26, 2017. 

Of the medal winners, 146 personnel have been selected for the Police Medal for Gallantry (PMG), 74 for President's Police Medal for Distinguished Services (PPM) and 632 for Police Medal (PM) for Meritorious Services, the Union Home Ministry announced on Friday.

The list of awardees was approved by President Ram Nath Kovind. 

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), a 3.5 lakh strong paramilitary force, bagged the highest number of 106 police medals. It is the only force whose three personnel were chosen for the PPMG awards posthumously. 

The CRPF also bagged a record 41 PMG awards among all armed forces and 57 PM awards. 

In the PMG list, the CRPF is followed by Odisha Police (26), Jammu and Kashmir Police (25), Chhattisgarh Police (14), Meghalaya Police (13), Uttar Pradesh (10), Border Security Force (8), Delhi Police (4), Jharkhand Police (3) and one each from Assam Rifles and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).

The Intelligence Bureau bagged the maximum of eight PPM awards followed by six each by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Uttar Pradesh Police; five each by CRPF and BSF; Maharashtra (4); Madhya Pradesh(3); two each by Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and ITBP; and one each by Assam, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Manipur, Mizoram, Telangana, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Daman and Diu, Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and Railway Police Force (RPF). 

Besides police medals, the President has approved Correctional Service Medals to 45 prison personnel. These include seven President's Correctional Service Medal for Distinguished Service and 38 Correctional Service Medal for Meritorious Service. 

The President has also approved Jeevan Raksha Padak Series of Awards-2018 for 48 persons which includes Sarvottam Jeevan Raksha Padak (8), Uttam Jeevan Raksha Padak (15) and Jeevan Raksha Padak (25). The Sarvottam Jeevan Raksha Padak awards are posthumous. 

Jeevan Raksha Padak series of awards are given to a person for meritorious act of human nature in saving the life of a person. The award is given in three categories -- Sarvottam Jeevan Raksha Padak, Uttam Jeevan Raksha Padak and Jeevan Raksha Padak. Persons of all walks of life are eligible for these awards. The award can also be conferred posthumously.

The decoration of the award (medal, certificate signed by the Union Home Minister and lump sum monetary allowance) is presented to the awardee in due course by the respective Union Ministries, organisations or state governments.