Media Should Highlight the Sacrifice of Policemen – Chandra Sekhar on Police Martyrs Day
Mangaluru: To commemorate the sacrifice of 473 policemen who have sacrificed their lives for the country in the line of duty, the ‘police martyrs day’, was observed at the DAR grounds here on October 21.
The guard of honour was given to the Prl District and Sessions Judge Dakshina Kannada, K S Bilagi and Deputy commissioner Dr Jagadeesha. Later K S Bilagi paid tribute to the police martyrs followed by Dr Jagadeesha, Police commissioner Chandra Sekhar, SP Bhushan Borase etc.
SP Bhushan Borase welcomed the gathering and read out the names of 473 policemen who lost their lives in the line of duty from the year 2015 to August 31, 2016.
Addressing the gathering, Prl District and Sessions Judge K S Bilagi said, “Police and Judges have a special relationship, because when the police bring cases to the court, it is the duty of the Judge to do justice with the case. My relatives are also in the police department and we have a special relationship. Police and Judges have a retirement age of 60 but for humanity, there is no retirement”.
He further said that if the society wants to be safe, the police play a vital role, we cannot be safe without the police. We need to understand the importance of the police personnel. Once we are born, we have to die but only a very few become martyrs’. We serve the society, get retired and receive the pension, but no one will remember us. Yes, when policemen die their family will be in trouble. If the government and the public will help them, more and more people will join the police department. When we join the police department we should perform our duty with integrity and not just for the sake of doing the job.”
Judge K S Bilagi recalled a story of a police constable who with great difficulty and sacrificing everything educated his three children to become doctors, Bilagi said, “It is not necessary that Police constables children also be constables or a peon’s children become peons. The Police should be strict but not harsh while dealing with people. We all are tenants on this earth and God is our owner, the number of days we live on this earth depends on him, but we should perform our duty with integrity. We do not know when he will evict us from this earth without any court order or notice. The blood of the Martyrs and their service is the visa to eliminate intolerance in the society”, he stressed.
Addressing the gathering Police commissioner Chandra Sekhar, “On this martyrs day, we are remembering the policemen who sacrificed their life for the nation in the line of duty. Every year about 400 – 500 our policemen sacrifice their lives. Our country has external and internal threats, the internal threats like rowdyism, terrorism etc are a continuous problem which we need to face every day, the External threats of aggression happen once in a while. After independence in 1948, 1965, 1971 and Kargil war are some of the significant major threats we have faced. Internal problems, like terrorism, Naxal attacks etc happen very often and every minute, we the state and the central police are the first lines of defense and we have to face it taking a lot of casualties. We are sacrificing a lot and people should know about it. Dying for the nation is not the only sacrifice. We are unable to spend much time with our family. We cannot plan our holidays. We work for 14 to 15 hours a day which causes anger and problems within our family, these are all sacrifices we do for the nation and people are not aware of it”.
He further said, “When there is any violence we have to rush to the spot. From the last four or five years, anything the police does is highlighted in a negative way. People should know that the police also sacrifice a lot including their family life, then only people will realize our work and will respect the police. If there is any accident, we have to deal it in our own way and people should know our credibility. Media should highlight the particular function so that people should realize that Police are also sacrificed for the nation, it is not only sacrificing our lives but we sacrifice our family life too. Our contribution and amount of sacrifice we do may be it is the highest”.
Chandra Sekhar quoted “Eternal vigilance is the price of democracy”, we have to perform our duty well. There will be improvement in our living and work conditions and they are happening. In the society, there should be a good opinion and credibility about the police. When any incident has occurred, according to the law, the burden of proof is on the prosecution. But unfortunately, in our society whenever there is an allegation made against a policeman which might be wrong or right. But unfortunately when we are on the other side of the law, public opinion is that we have to prove that we are innocent and not that the prosecution should prove it. This mentality should change and the media should play an important role in bringing changes in the minds of people. This year the policemen who laid down their lives for the country, I convey my deepest gratitude and regards to all those great souls”.
Deputy commissioner Dr Jagadeesha said, “Soldiers are protecting the country on the borders but thousands of policemen work within the borders to maintain law and order in the country. Soldiers have war posting and peace posting but in the police department, there is no war or peace posting they should always and any time be available for the call of duty”.
Sharing his experience while he was on probationary period, Dr Jagadeesha said, “The ASP had twice invited me for dinner. When I was about to go to his place, the ASP called me and said, there is a serious offense and I need to go immediately, I will invite you another time. The third time when I was about to go back after completing my training, he forced me to come for dinner. I had gone to his house and when we were about to have dinner, the ASP received a call that there was a major accident on the Highway and some people had lost their lives. The ASP requested me to have dinner and immediately left. I felt really sad that the police do not even get time for a proper meal, but his family members said it was common for them to cope with such situations”.
DC further said that 473 policemen have sacrificed their lives for the safety of the country. Let the family members of 473 policemen get the strength to bear the loss of their loved ones.
DCP Law and Order Shantharaju, DCP Crime and Traffic Dr Sanjeev M Patil, ACP Uday Nayak, ACP Tilakchandra, ACP Shruti, Additional SP Dr Vadamurthy, ASP Rishyanth, Chief Warden Jeo Gonsalves and others were also present.
