For Gurdaspur cops, UN medal winner leads the fight

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, April 27

“I can do this, I thought. And even if I can’t, I have to.”

This thought was uppermost in the mind of constable Hardeep Singh the moment he was asked to look after the needs of 36 PAP men who were lodged in the Dhariwal police station, a day after the lockdown came into effect.

‘In good books of seniors’

The man works for 15 hours a day. He is continuing with his good work of which the entire police force is proud. Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts. And that is what he is doing right now. – Swarandeep Singh, SSP

He is the winner of ‘The United Nations Medal’( 2008), when he had served as a member of the UN Peace Keeping Force in Congo.

Hardeep rose to the occasion and not only provided succor to his colleagues, but at the same time he also decided to procure ration to feed scores of slum dwellers living nearby.

Intelligence reports were quick to reach DGP Dinkar Gupta who, subsequently, decided to confer upon the ex-Army man the prestigious ‘DGP Honour for Exemplary Sewa to Society’.

The constable dug deep into his resources to ensure his brethren take back fond memories when they return to their homes once the corona is reigned in.

“Not only this, in these days of curfew when people do not move out fearing reprisals from cops, I regularly drive the ailing elderly to the civil hospital for treatment. Once I was taking a septuagenarian, suffering from a kidney ailment, when policemen at the checkpost stopped me. They told me I was ferrying my relative, which they said was nor fair, and reprimanded me. I had a hard time convincing them that the man was not at all related to me and that I was serving humanity in my own little way,” he said.

Unknown to too many of his colleagues, Hardeep had served with the UN Peace Keeping Force in Congo in 2008 and that too with distinction.

In 2000, while was posted as a havildar with 18th Sikh Regiment, he also shot dead two ULFA militants, one of them turned out to be an area commander known as Mintu Burman, whose name spelt terror for the locals in Nalbari district of Assam. Consequently, he was awarded the ‘Sena Medal’ by the Army Chief for “individual acts of exceptional devotion to duty.”

In 2003, Hardeep underwent a rigorous month-long Commando stint in Belgaum. “This training taught me many things. One was that courage is not having the strength to go on, rather it is going on when you do not have strength,” he said.

He was on cloud nine after being informed by SSP Swarandeep Singh about the DGP’s honour.

While in Congo, Hardeep was given a piece of advice by his Commander that he is fond of quoting.

“If you feel like losing everything, remember that trees lose their leaves every year and still they stand tall and wait for better days to come,” he recounts.

Many distinctions to his credit

• Constable Hardeep Singh is the winner of ‘The United Nations Medal’( 2008), when he had served as a member of the UN Peace Keeping Force in Congo.
• In 2000, while was posted as a havildar with 18th Sikh Regiment, he also shot dead two ULFA militants, one of them turned out to be an area commander known as Mintu Burman