The entire police force, from the bottom to top, should have the realisation that they are public servants, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said.
He was speaking on Friday after taking salute from 2,279 armed police constables, who completed training at the Kerala Police Academy, online. The passing-out parade was held at the Police Academy’s ground at Ramavarmapuram.
The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak occurred during the training period provided a special experience to the trainees, the Chief Minister noted. “The preventive mission against the pandemic is a social work taken up along with people. The current police training programme has a holistic approach. The change is visible. But isolated unfortunate incidents have been happening from the force. We have been keeping vigil against them,” he said.
State Police Chief Loknath Behera also received the salute online. Academy director B. Sandhya and DIG Neeraj Kumar Guptha received the salute at the academy.
On COVID duty
The trainees were deployed on COVID-19 Janamaithri police duty for three and a half months in various police stations during the lockdown period. They were part of COVID-19 awareness campaigns and community kitchen activities.
It was the first batch of armed police constables who completed an integrated training programme at the Integrated Police Recruitment Centre at the Police Academy. There are 19 MTech holders, 306 BTech holders and 26 MBAs among the constables. They also include 173 postgraduates and 1,084 graduates.
