A total of 1,132 personnel of police, fire service, home guard and civil defence and correctional service have been awarded gallantry and service medals on the eve of Republic Day, the home ministry said on Thursday.
Among the 277 gallantry awards, 119 have gone to personnel deployed in Left Wing Extremism-affected areas and 133 to personnel from the Jammu and Kashmir region while the remaining 25 awardees are personnel from other regions.
The maximum gallantry medals (72) have gone to Jammu and Kashmir police personnel, followed by 65 to CRPF troops, 18 to personnel from Maharashtra, 26 to Chhattisgarh, 23 to Jharkhand, 15 to Odisha, eight to Delhi police personnel and 21 to personnel from the SSB.
The medals are categorised as the President’s Medal for Gallantry (PMG), Medal for Gallantry, President’s Medal for Distinguished Service and Medal for Meritorious Service.
The PMG has been accorded to two BSF personnel posthumously for their “outstanding contribution in the prestigious task of peacekeeping as part of the United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo as members of the 15th Congo Contingent of BSF at the Moroccan Rapid Deployment Battalion camp at Butembo”.BSF head constables Sanwala Ram Vishnoi and Shishu Pal Singh were killed in the line of action in Congo in July 2022.
