M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Dec. 27: Kandi police in Garhwa district today held a football match between the two rural football clubs; Chataniya and Pepardeeh. The match was held to launch and promote community policing under the directive of the SP Garhwa Anjani Kumar Jha.
Around 700 men, women and children witnessed this game sponsored by the local police. The Chataniya football club won the match and took the trophy home. The SP Garhwa gave away tracksuits, jerseys, footballs and other prizes to both teams.
Arvind Kumar was declared the best footballer of the match.
The community policing here today catered to the youngsters, the elderly men and women and school children. The show of the police today became an instant household name there at Chataniya.
As the passion for cricket is high in rural areas, the SP also gifted two cricket teams namely Lamari cricket club and Chataniya cricket club. The community policing ceremony site Chataniya is around 62 kilometres away from the Garhwa district police headquarters.
Around ten years ago, the villagers of Kandi police station used to live in the awe of the extremists and the police and there was a visible chasm between the public and the police here.
The community policing here today has revived the hope that the public and police can come close to each other as Naxals are down but not out.
The fear of Naxals was a thing of the past as the rustic rubbed shoulders with the police, who remained alert and cautious as ever, because any crowd in a village necessitates prudent caution on the part of the police, according to a police officer, and the Kandi police showed plenty of caution without getting in the way of the rustic folks’ pervasive feeling of joy and happiness today over community policing.
SP Jha also helped the poor with around 200 blankets while school-going children were given stationeries.
The SP said that the Garhwa police will continue to conduct such community-based policing.
Sub-divisional police officer Awadh Kr Yadav, Major Om Prakash Das and noted civil society activist Sukh Nandan Yadav and many others were present in this ceremony of public-police contact.
