The Hindu : National : Vyas team gets award for saving lives during quake

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Vyas team gets award for saving lives during quake

Special Correspondent

J.K. Tripathy honoured for Tiruchi community policing

— Photo: V.V. Krishnan

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh greeting the winners of the Award for Excellence in Public Administration on Civil Services Day 2008 at the Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi on Monday.

NEW DELHI: A team of seven IAS and other officials who showed “extraordinary performance” in carrying out relief and rehabilitation work during the devastating 2005 earthquake in Jammu and Kashmir was among those honoured with the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration here on Monday.

On behalf of the team, B.B. Vyas, a senior IAS officer, received Rs. 5 lakh, a medal and a citation from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Civil Services Day.

“By actively involving various stakeholders, coordinating and networking with civilian departments, police, army, paramilitary forces and NGOs, the officers saved several lives by quickly evacuating and treating the injured,” the citation said.

J.K. Tripathy, an IPS officer of the 1985 batch from the Tamil Nadu cadre, received the award for introducing in Tiruchi an innovative “community policing module,” which caused the crime graph to dip considerably.

The award included a medal, a scroll and a cash prize of Rs. 1 lakh.

He told The Hindu that the “Community Police Module” basically reinforced the beat officer system in which all residents of a locality knew their police officer.

Mr. Tripathy has also launched a “slum adoption programme” under which dropouts, children of anti-social and criminal elements and needy ones are identified and encouraged to take up either vocational courses or resume their studies. “Funds for this programme come from governmental and non-governmental agencies and it hits at the very root of criminalisation and juvenile delinquency. It also helps in economic uplift of slum dwellers, particularly women through self-help groups.”

He is the first IPS officer to have received two international awards — the International Community Policing Award by the International Association of Chiefs of Police in Toronto, Canada, in 2001 and a gold medal for “Innovations in Governance” at Glasgow, U.K. in 2002 by the Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management.

Mr. Tripathy is at present serving as Inspector-General (Economic Offences Wing-I) in Tamil Nadu.

Other awardees included a team of 28 officers at the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) for bringing about a revolutionary change in the efficiency, effectiveness and performance of the Railways through development and implementation of a computerised unreserved ticketing system.

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