Police, paramilitary personnel are not martyrs: Central police officer

NEW DELHI: While the country today commemorated the sacrifice of its police and paramilitary personnel killed in the line of duty, the government is yet to accord " martyr" status to these personnel on the lines of the armed forces.

"The stark reality is that while there is an official notification in the government gazette to declare troops and officers of the Army, Navy and Air Force as martyrs when they sacrifice their lives in the line of duty, there is no such order for police and paramilitary personnel," a top central police officer said.

As per a Home Ministry data, between September 2011 to August this year, a total of 546 police and paramilitary personnel lost their lives on duty due to "unnatural" causes, which include action.

Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde today paid tributes to these personnel at a memorial event in the national capital, where for the first time all the central forces came together to pay their tributes to their valiant comrades.

The fact was also recently reported in Parliament by Minister of State for Home Jitendra Singh stating that in a Committee of Secretaries (COS) meeting, convened on this subject last year, "no consensus" could emerge on the issue.

"The matter (for giving status of martyr to paramilitary personnel) was considered by the COS on September 14, 2011 but there was no consensus on the issue," Singh said in a written reply in Lok Sabha on May 8 this year.