Bhubaneswar: As many as 36 police personnel from Odisha have been selected on the eve of the Independence Day to receive police medals.
The police personnel who will receive President’s Police Medal for Gallantry (PPMG) are--Prakash Kumar Karan, Sushil Das, Akash Mahapatra, Chandramani Bhoi, Shyam Dhangad Majhi, K Shiva Subramani, Dilip Kumar Danta, Jyotiranjan Pati, Sachidananda Bariha, Ashish Kumar Sarkar, Prashant Kumar Barick, Bhuban Selma, Satyaranjan Kathar, Pramod Barla, Mithun Pradhan, Jagmohan Meena, Santosh Juwang, Shiva Shankar Nayak, Pabitra Mohan Nayak, Chaitanya Kirshani, Ghenu Hantal, Sudhanshu Bhupati and Rukdhar Negi.
Deputy Superintendent of Police, Pramod Rath, and Vigilance ASI Shiv Narayan Rath will get President's Police Medal award for Distinguished Service.
A total of 114 gallantry medals have been given to the troops deployed in the counter-terrorism operations grid in J-K while offensives in the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected states fetched 62 such decorations followed by 4 for counter-insurgency operations in the north eastern states, a government statement said.
Nine personnel have been given these bravery medals posthumously.
The Central Reserve Police Force, like previous years, has bagged the maximum, 72 gallantry medals followed by 61 by the J-K Police, 23 by Odisha Police, nine by police personnel from Chhattisgarh which is majorly affected by the LWE violence, and five each by the Border Security Force and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police force
While 89 police personnel have been given the President's Police Medal for distinguished service, 677 have been awarded the police medal for meritorious service.
A total of 56 personnel have been awarded fire service medals and 44 officials have been given the home guard and civil defence medals. Fourty personnel have also been awarded the correctional service medals that are given to prison personnel who guard and manage jails in various states.
(With PTI inputs)