119th Raising Day of Manipur Police celebrated

October 19 2011/by Bachaspatimayum Sunzu

On the occasion of the 119th raising day of Manipur Police, Manipur Governor, Shri Gurbachan Jagat, while commending its glorious existence warned the DGP of Manipur of undesirable elements within the force, citing 29 cases where personnel of the Manipur Police were arrested either for taking the law into their own hands or for having links with undesirable elements and suggested regular screening from time to time.

‘Such element must be weeded out rigorously so that the reputation of the force is held high’ said Governor Gurbachan Jagat in his address at the Manipur Police Raising Day Celebration held at the 1st battalion Manipur Rifles parade ground in Imphal.

The Raising Day Parade, consisting 18 contingents of Manipur Police personnel and four platoons of Village Defence force, VDF was commanded by Angam Kamei, IPS, additional SP Imphal East.

49 officers and men, including two women officers were awarded the DGP’s Commendation Medals for devotion to duty and successes in policing including law & order maintenance and criminal investigations.

Additional SP Imphal East (Ops), Puspanjali Devi who received the medal from the Governor said ‘it is good to be recognized for one’s work. Medal will inspire me to perform even better in future’. The lady IPS was awarded for her able handling of several cases including the Raj Bhavan bomb case, the killing of a news sub-editor (Rishikanta) and the road-rage shoot-out case, involving a minister’s son. Tenant verification and cleanliness drive conducted by Imphal East Police is also credited to her.

Speaking at the parade, DGP Yumnam Joykumar called on each of his officer & men to be a thinking policemen & policewomen and reminded them of their ‘oath of service’ to uphold the Constitution and ensure citizens enjoy the rights as guaranteed by the Constitution. While urging his force to be courteous when dealing with citizens, the DGP blamed the Manipur public of being irresponsible, who only response to harsh words and measures. He further went on to say that this cannot be an excuse to be callous and impolite.

Raised as the State Military Police by the British in 1892 with a strength of only 383, the Manipur Police has gone through a sea of transformation, structurally and responsibility wise. Besides normal policing duties, the Manipur Police plays a key role in counterinsurgency operations. Despite aberrations that dogs the departmentin Manipur, statistic show the law & order situation and public order maintenance has markly improved over the last one year. Intensive counter insurgency operations by the Police along with the central forces, has to a great extent checked the activities of the UGs forcing the militants to seek refuge across the border in Myanmar and Bangladesh, apart from taking shelter in other states of the country.

Understanding its importance and tremendous resource constraints, the Government of India has funded a massive expansion and modernization programme. Over 10,000 officers and other ranks were inducted during the last two years to overcome its initial manpower shortfall. From about 15,414 in 2008, its current strength now stand at 24,622. In a state grappling with chronic unemployment with almost all other government departments put under a blanket ban on conducting recruitment, the Manipur Police Department has been the answer to many job-seekers. With a sanctioned strengthen of 35,505, the Police department is still luring of them in huge numbers.

Along with the massive manpower expansion, under Special Plan Assistance and Modernization of State Police Forces, significant development in infrastructure has take place. Installation of 28 CCTV cameras at Raj Bhavan, 27 at Chief Minister’s Bungalow and 100 in the Bazaar area has started for extra vigilance. Eight mechanized country boats have been purchased, out of which six will be used in Loktak lake and two in Barak river in sanitizing and providing a secure environment in additional to three Hovercrafts procured for operation in Loktak.