Subodh Kumar Jaiswal is Mumbai’s Top Cop
Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, a senior IPS officer took charge as the Commissioner of Police, Mumbai, from Datta Padsalgikar, who became the Director General of Police, Maharashtra, after the former DGP retired on the same day.
Prior to this assignment, Jaiswal, a 1985 batch IPS officer was posted with, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) – India’s external intelligence agency before returning to Mumbai. Apart from the various challenging assignments in the past, he also served as the head of 2005 high court appointed SIT that probed the Abdul Kumar Telgi’s Rs.20000 crore fake stamp paper case. Jaiswal also headed the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), and was in charge of investigating the 2006 serial train blasts and Malegaon blast case.
Navi Mumbai has new Commissioner of Police
Sanjay Kumar, a 1989 batch IPS officer, is the new Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner. He took over charge from Hemant Nagrale, Hemant Nagrale, meanwhile, has taken over charge as Additional Director 
General of Police (Procurements & Provisions), Maharashtra.
Sanjay Kumar was the ADG, CID, Pune, for three and a half years. He led the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the 2015 killing of rationalist, Govind Pasare.
Student Police Cadet (SPC) Programme for Nationwide Implementation Launched
At a function recently, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh launched the Student Police Cadet(SPC) programme. The objective of the programme is to help students in becoming more responsible by inculcating in them values of respect for the elderly, discipline and social responsibility through police-student interaction. The SPC programme intends to provide a healthy interface between schools and police. The students will be trained in public safety, discipline, patience,tolerance, empathy, respect for senior citizens, social harmony, traffic sense and cultivation of a corruption-free environment. The trained students will be equipped with ethical values of social commitment and be aware of social evils such as drugs, alcohol abuse, intolerance and vandalism. The programme would enhance the personality of the students and bring a positive change in the society. The programme hopes to create a silent revolution by imparting moral values.
The Home Minister appealed to all the stakeholders – teachers, parents, students, police and officials at the function – to participate with enthusiasm and execute the SPC as a Mission Mode project. The SPC project will also help the police in assessing their image in the public eye and strive for improving confidence and winning trust of the people. SPC initially will be launched as a pilot programme in all States and Union Territories. The Home Minister launched the theme song and training manual of SPC prepared by the Bureau of Police Research and Development(BPR&D).
The SPC programme focuses on students of Classes 8 & 9. Special care has been taken to ensure that it does not lead to increase in the workload of the students. The programme does not have any prescribed textbook nor has any exam been envisaged. To begin with, only one class in a month is proposed. The programme seeks to cover broadly two kinds of topics, – crime prevention % control; % values and ethics.
Speaking on the occasion, Union Minister, HRD, Prakash Javadekar said, ”SPC is a very good initiative which will be launched initially in Government schools and later expanded to cover all schools. Talent alone is not sufficient for success. Students need discipline and hardwork which will be imparted through SPC. SPC will cover around four crore students.”
In his address, the Chief Minister of Haryana – Manohar Lal, said, “The SPC will assist in social construction through personality building of students. The students having undergone SPC training will be given advantage during police recruitment.”
Special Operation Medal
The institution of “Home Minister’s Special Operation Medal” has been approved by Rajnath Singh, Union Home Minister. Police officers of States & Union territories, Central Police Organizations (CPOs), Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and Security Organizations involved in Special Operations will be eligible to receive these medals.
The Union Home Minister has also instituted three more medals, – The Antarik Suraksha Medal, Asadharan Aashuchan Padak, and Utkrisht & Ati-Utkrisht Seva Medal. The medals will be awarded annually; while the HM’s Special Operation Medal and Asadharan Aashuchan Padak will be awarded on 15th August coinciding with the Independence Day, the Antarik Suraksha Medal and Utkrisht & Ati-Utkrisht Seva Medal will be announced on 26th January to mark the Republic Day.
The Asadharan Aashuchan Padak will be given to officials of Intelligence organization of Central Government and Intelligence Dept./Wings/Special Branches/Units of all State/UT Police, CPOs, CAPFs, Assam Rifles (AR) and National Security Guard (NSG) for acts of exceptional courage and skill in intelligence gathering.
The Antarik Suraksha Medal will be bestowed upon police personnel of States/UTs/ CPOs/CAPFs/Security Organization in recognition of Operation Duty rendered by them for a tenure of every two years in Internal Security in J&K State/LWE region/NE region.
The Utkrisht and Ati Utkrisht Seva Medal will be awarded to permanent police personnel and other permanent support staff working in CAPFs, State/UTs police forces, CPOs, AR, NSG, Home Guard (HG) and Intelligence organization of Central Govt/State Govt./CAPFs in recognition of long service of 15 and 25 years and good service records.
The medal may be withdrawn if the holder is found guilty of disloyalty or brings the force to disrepute such as removal, major penalty, criminal offence etc.
Vivek Phansalkar takes over charge as commissioner of police- Thane
In a major reshuffle Vivek Phansalkar a 1989 batch officer took over charge as commissioner of police- Thane from the outgoing CP- Parambir Singh, who has now been transferred to Mumbai as the Additional Director General of Police (Law & Order). Prior to this Phansalkar was ADG (ACB) and chief of Anti-Terrorism Squad(Maharashtra) and Joint Commissioner of police (Traffic) in Mumbai. He also has to his credit a stint with International Police Task Force and United Nations Mission to Bosnia where he was awarded two UN medals.
By Jyoti Pathak
