By IANS
Lucknow : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati marked India’s Independence Day Wednesday by giving away three new awards instituted for policemen after hoisting the tricolour.
Called the ‘Utkrisht Sewa Medal’ (Exemplary Services Medal), the award was conferred by Mayawati on three police officers at a ceremony in front of the Vidhan Bhawan here.
The awardees included Mayawati’s personal security officer Padam Singh, a deputy superintendent of police who has been with her ever since she came to power for the first time in the 1994.
The other two were Raghubir Lal, senior superintendent of police, Aligarh, and Anand Deo, additional superintendent of police, Special Task Force (STF).
State police chief Vikram Singh read out their citations, highlighting the “exemplary” work carried out by each of them.
Attired in a beige satin salwar kurta, Mayawati addressed the gathering of ministers, bureaucrats and police officials and enumerated her three-month-old government’s long list of achievements.
Without naming her predecessor Mulayam Singh Yadav, she said: “I inherited a jungle raj with total lawlessness and rampant corruption; it has been my endeavour to put things in order and we are already on the path to building a crime-free, terror-free, corruption-free and a development oriented state.”
While hailing freedom fighters, she praised the contribution of her political mentor Kanshi Ram, whom she described as the “architect of modern India’s social change”.
“What we need to achieve now is economic independence for millions who are still living below the poverty line,” Mayawati stressed while listing out steps initiated by her to combat poverty and unemployment.
Most government buildings here were illuminated in the three colours of the national flag since Tuesday evening. The tricolour was also hoisted in government offices and educational institutions where NCC cadets put up parades.