Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said on Monday the government was formulating a policy to award one-rank promotion for any defence or police personnel from the state winning a gallantry award in war or in peace time
“If any such officers or personnel wish to join the Punjab Police, their service and bravery would be given due recognition,” the chief minister said here at the piping ceremony of Kargil war hero Satpal Singh, who was managing traffic as a senior police constable in Sangrur district.
On Friday, Amarinder Singh had ordered a double promotion for Satpal Singh as a special case and decided to recruit him as an assistant sub-inspector (ASI).
Satpal Singh was posted in the Drass sector during Operation Vijay and was part of the team that helped the Indian Army capture Tiger Hill.
He killed Captain Karnal Sher Khan of Pakistan’s Northern Light Infantry and three others. Khan was later conferred the Nishan-e-Haider, Pakistan’s highest gallantry award, on the recommendation of an Indian brigade commander who vouched for his bravery on the icy heights.
Piping the stars of ASI on Satpal Singh’s uniform, the chief minister said what he had done now was merely a case of “too little too late” for the soldier.
In a statement, Amarinder Singh said he had merely set right the “wrong perpetrated” on Satpal Singh by the previous SAD-BJP government, which he alleged had ignored the valour of the soldier and failed to give him the recognition and respect he deserved.
This, the chief minister said, should have been done at the time of Satpal Singh’s recruitment in 2010.
The chief minister said the policy to be drafted by his government would leave no scope for such “injustice”, adding that it would cover police gallantry award winners, including junior commissioned officers and non-commissioned officers, in addition to the soldiers of the defence forces.
Amarinder Singh said his government was committed to the welfare of current and former soldiers, saying their sacrifices to the nation and its people could not be allowed to go unrecognised.
The chief minister said he was “pained” at hearing that Satpal was working as a senior traffic constable and wanted to give the dignity and respect he deserved.
Interestingly, Satpal Singh finds mention in Amarinder Singh’s book, ‘A Ridge Too Far – War in the Kargil Heights’.
