At least 25 constables of Madhya Pradesh Police faced the music for allegedly refusing to go for band training for the Independence Day. They were suspended from duty for their indiscretion.
According to sources, the suspended policemen are from the five districts of Mandsaur, Raisen, Khandwa, Harda and Sidhi.
The most number of suspensions were ordered from the Mandsaur district where as many as 10 constables have been suspended. In the Raisen district, five policemen have been suspended, four in the Khandwa district and three each in the Harda and Sidhi districts, the sources said.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Dr Mohan Yadav had announced last year that police bands would be constituted in all the 55 districts of the state. There were police bands in six districts already and in accordance with the CM’s instructions, new band groups were to be trained and set up in the remaining 49 districts.
The Special Armed Force (SAF) of the MP Police was entrusted with the responsibility of preparing the new bands. ADG SAF Sajid Farid Shapoo had issued a letter on 18 December 2023 to the SPs of all districts of the state to send a list of policemen from Constable to Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) rank in their respective districts that were interested in becoming part of the police bands.
In view of that, 330 policemen were selected to take band training of 90 days beginning from 10 January this year. The trainees were made to learn playing various musical instruments and tunes that are played in the bands of the police, defence forces and other armed services of the country along with music from patriotic songs and other entertaining melodies too.
The 7th Battalion SAF at Bhopal imparted training to 100 constables, the 1st Battalion SAF Indore trained 107 constables and the 6th Battalion SAF Jabalpur trained 123 policemen for becoming part of the police bands in various districts.
As per the CM’s directives, this year the police bands would play tunes during the Independence Day parades in all the 55 districts of Madhya Pradesh.