Happy Birthday jingles will now be heard in thanas, police outposts and camps in Palamu police range which has three districts Garhwa Palamu and Latehar.
Cops’ birthday will be celebrated and he will be wished happy birthday. There will be flowers and sweets. Cops having birthday will enjoy half day leave too!
This initiative has been launched by DIG of police Palamu Vipul Shukla. He made a start of it also when on Saturday October 13 he and his team at his official residence here celebrated the birthday of his driver Aloke Pandey and constable Chhotu Thakur.
DIG Shukla said “ I gave the two flowers. I wished them happy birthday. It must be a pleasant experience for them. We had then “ Kuchh meetha ho jai”. We had sweets. The mess for the cops at my official residence had “kheer on this occasion.”
Cutting cake or sniffing out candles is not in our culture and so we prefer flowers. Lots of sincere good wishes and lots of care and affection which are far more ‘delicious than cake are showered on birth day celebrating cops, said the DIG.
The cops whose birthday was so celebrated were in their best of dress, not in uniform. “They looked relaxed and at home and this is what I want that every cop away from home on duty here should feel at home” said DIG.
Asked how this idea came to him he said “ Every now and then one reads news stories as to how a cop here and there shoots down someone or shoots self. The Gurgaon incident is the latest. It is a huge stress syndrome that is with cops. The lower rung of police be taken care of in a very homely manner and way”.
“I have written to my seniors in police headquarters about this kind of celebrations of cops’ birth day in Palamu range” he said.
Apart from celebrations the station head officer (SHO) has been asked to spare an hour for his cops working in his thanas etc. The SHO will sit with him, talk to him and find out if any storm or rage is within him or any worry be it on account of his wife’s health, parents’ old age, children’s education, daughter’s marriage, any enmity with ‘gotiya” (kin) on issue of land etc trouble him or make him restless.
SHOs will do the needful at his level and if SHO needs superior’s help it will be given he assured.
Shukla has asked police officials to promote ‘buddy pair’ among the cops. A buddy pair will be the first hand information if there comes in a change in character, behavior or mood of a cop.
DIG then explained “Suppose if there was a cop who used to laugh and smile but over the last few days the same cop looks pensive, lost and tense and this change can be noticed first by the buddy only. This buddy is to immediately bring this change in his friend’s behavior to the notice of the senior for corrective measures.”
DIG said “ If a cop is found or observed as tense and not stable in his psyche then the first thing to be done with the cops is to disarm him. His pistol/ gun be at once surrendered to the police line.”
Sources said a few months back there had occurred a couple of suicidal deaths of cops in Garhwa district where cops with their official weapons finished themselves. The episodes of Garhwa constabulary had sent down then a wave of shock and concern and from that tragedy senior police officers were mooting a devise to destress their work force and also to make them ‘at home’ at their duty place.
Sources said this move of DIG Shukla is a big step towards distressing of cops on work/ duty.
