Sikh police officers who wear turbans cannot join firearms teams?

Sikh police officers who wear turbans cannot join firearms teams, following a ruling from the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo).

Officers can choose instead to wear a smaller head covering known as a patka, which will fit under a helmet.

The Acpo guidance follows consultations with the Home Office and a range of police associations representing Sikhs.

In 2009, a tribunal awarded £10,000 to a Sikh officer who was ordered to remove his turban during riot training.

The British Sikh Police Association asked for a clarification from Acpo following the award, and proposed a "ballistic turban" that would provide head protection.

Acpo opted against the ballistic turban approach but said the idea was worth "future exploration".

'No discrimination'

"The police service has a legal duty to consider the health and safety of staff at work and provide appropriate personal protective equipment to staff who are placed in high risk situations," said Chief Constable Meredydd Hughes, Acpo's head of uniformed operations.

As a result, Sikh officers will only be permitted to engage in armed operations if they remove their turbans or wear the smaller patka head covering to permit the use of a helmet for protection.

Chief Constable Hughes said that wearing a patka was "a matter of choice for the police officer", adding that "Sikh officers who wear a turban will not be discriminated against if they choose not to perform firearms or higher-level public order duties".

'Treated with fairness'

Gurpal Virdi, office co-ordinator for the Metropolitan Police Sikh Association, welcomed the clarification.

"Supervising officers had no idea how to deal with Sikh officers before; there was no guidance," he told BBC News.

"Some Sikh officers were being discriminated against, especially in rural constabularies.

"The guidance now makes clear how Sikh officers should be treated with fairness."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8639432.stm

Mohit and tarsem leads team media to win

Mohit and tarsem leads team media to win

Ludhiana: (7th feb 2010)
Wonderful batting by captain mohit khanna and tremendous bowling by spin bowler tarsem deogan leads team media to another victory here on Sunday in a 20-20 friendly cricket match against the ludhiana police eleven. the match was played at cricket ground of govt. college for boys ludhiana. Team media won this match by 40 runs. mohit scored a fifty, while tarsem scatterd four wickets. Spin bowler from police eleven DSP varinder singh brar also collect four wickets. tarsem and DSP brar declared man of the match jointly. Both teams played with true game spirit.
Captain of police eleven SSP Dr. Sukhchain singh gill won the toss and invited team media to bat. Team media loose nine wickets and set a target of 158 for police eleven in 20 overs. Face batsman mohit khanna and sunil gave a strong start to team media. mohit scored 55 runs with the help of one six and five fours. sunil scored 16 runs. Other successful batsman were neeraj manra and lehri. neeraj collect 20 runs with help of one six and a four. lehri contributes 16 runs in teams total.
DSP varinder brar collect 4 wickets.
Police eleven failed to follow the target. police eleven got all out on 117 runs in 14.5 overs. Captain of the team SSP Dr. sukhchain singh gill scored 15 runs. Ravinder contributes highest 24 runs. SHO Daljit singh khak (18), SP Snehdeep sharma (17) and gurwinder (16) also bat very well.
Tarsem deogan was the most successful bowler for media eleven. tarsem got four wickets and scatterd the middle order of police eleven. Police eleven was in strong position when spinners were introduced in bowling. Arshdeep samar collect two wickets with his off spin bowling and accompanied tarsem to send all the batsman of police eleven back to pavilion. neeraj manra claims two and ajit claims one wicket.
SSP Dr. Sukhchain singh gill congratulate team media for the victory. SSP announced a series of 20-20 matches between team media and police eleven. The others who enjoyed the match were SP (traffic) Rupinder singh, SP (headquarter) Harish kumar sharma, DSP Bhupinder singh, DSP Harmohan singh, DSP Parampal singh, DSP Harjinder singh, manager team media sunil dutt, inspector Maninder bedi, sub-inspector Beant juneja and sub-inspector Jarnail singh.

Sky is for birds

One of my friend send me this e-mail. i found this mail very touchy. one should aware about the nature, the sky is for birds.
The Manja (thread) of kites kills and injures many birds every year. Please don't fly kites and if you have to, please don't use glass manja.

Please pass this on to your friends. Together we can save many birds.

If you see a bird in trouble please report to the nearest animal shelter as early as possible.


The chinese Kite string is responsible for injuries and death of birds animals and even human beings.

WISH YOU ALL A WONDERFUL NEW YEAR

Jhanda ooncha rahe hamara

Patriotic indians can fly the national flag even at night. Don't be so exited, first read the full article and the conditions. This is subject to the condition that the flagpole is really tall and the flag itself well-illuminated.
The Home Ministry took the decision following a proposal in this regard by industrialist Naveen Jindal, who had earlier won a court battle in the 1990s for flying the national flag as a fundamental right for every citizen. In a communication to Jindal, also a Congress leader and Member of Parliament, the Ministry said it has examined the proposal and had no objection to installing "giant flagpoles for flying the National Flag day and night at various places."
In a representation to the Ministry in June 2009, Jindal had sought permission to fly mammoth-sized national flag on monumental flagpoles during night. Jindal had said that the National Flag is to be flown in "as far as possible between sunrise and sunset" as per Flag Code of India, but it was a common practice worldwide for massive national flags to be flown day and night on monumental flagpoles of 100 feet and above in height.
Citing the example of countries like Malaysia, Jordon, Abu Dhabi, North Korea, Brazil, Mexico and Turkmenistan where monumental flags are flown at night, Jindal proposed for such flags to be flown in India also.
JAI HO..

Unbeaten Media XI register 7-wkt win

Ludhiana: Sunny smashed 50 runs with the help of three sixes and six hits over the ropes as Ludhiana Media XI scored an easy seven-wicket win over State Bank of Patiala in a Twenty20 cricket match played at Arya College ground here on 19th april. This is sixth victory in a row for media eleven.
State Bank of Patiala won the toss and elected to bat first. However, their decision turned out to be a miscalculated one as they could muster only 120 runs in 18.3 overs. The main contributors were Purshotam (30), Gaurav (19) and Sanjeev (11).
For Ludhiana Media XI, Lahiri and Ajit were the pick of bowlers who captured four and three wickets, respectively, while acting captain Arshdeep scalped two victims and Tarsem Deogan grabbed one wicket to contain State Bank of Patiala to a modest total of 120 runs.
Ludhiana Media XI made the required runs in just 14.5 overs after losing three wickets. Sunny scored 50 runs while Sunil made 28. Venkat remained unbeaten on 8 runs and Tarsem Devgan chipped in with 7 runs.
For his fine performance with the ball, Lahiri was declared the Man of the Match. we realy played very well and team players gave their hundred percent to register this victory, says media eleven's acting captain arshdeep samar.

Dr. Manmohan Singh or Mr. LK Advani?

Though, the Sikhs are in a dilemma whether to vote for Dr. Manmohan Singh, or Mr. LK Advani, Prime Ministerial candidateds of main contender/political parties Congress and BJP, a section of Sikh intelligentsia is of the view that Dr Manmohan Singhs hands should be strengthened as he has enhanced the pride of Sikhs. Dr. Singh is a man of integrity, eminent economist, gentleman,humble and soft-spoken. None can point out any accusing finger towards him, they say. Dr Manmohan Singh’s contribution for the development of Punjab can not be ignored. The facts given hereunder speak themselves:-

Beside releasing liberal funds for strengthening the infrastructure at Amritsar Airport, a new International Airport has been sanctioned for Punjab at Mohali-Chandigarh.
Two Central Universities(at Amritsar and Bathinda) and one IIT at Ropar have been allocated to Punjab.
Guru Gobind Singh Marg has been sanctioned from Talwandi Sabo in Punjab to Nanded (Maharashtra)passing through five other states. Adequate funds were allocated for the development of Anandpur Sahib( Rs 147 crores)and Talwandi Sabo(Rs 132 crores) in view of 300 years of Gurta Gaddi Divas in 2008. Rs 1400 crores were spent for the development and beautification of Nanded. An airport named after Guru Gobind Singh Ji has also been established at Nanded, Special funds were allocated for development and beautification of Amritsar under JL Nehru Urban Renewal Programme. A special grant of Rs 100 crores was given to Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhian in 2007 for research work. An Institute for studay/research of holy Guru Granth Sahib is being established at Guru Nanak Dev University,Amritsar.
First time in the history of India, Governors of 8 important states are Punjabis(Surjit Singh Barnala, General JJ Singh, SS Sidhu, Bhupinder Singh Andeman Nicobar, RL Bhatia, Balram Jakhar, NN Vohra, Gurbachan Jagat, Tejinder Khanna). Four Ministers ( Dr. MS Gill, Ambika Soni, Ashwini Kumar, Pawan Bansal) in the central cabinet are from Punjab.
Montek Singh Ahluwalia is Deputy Chaiman of Yojna Board. Navtej Singh Sarna is Spokesperson of External Affairs Ministry, while Hardip Singh Puri is Indian Representative in UNO.By honouring Bhai Nirmal Singh Kha lsa, a Hazoori Raagi of Sri Harmander Sahib with Padma Shree award/title, the Gurmat Sangeet and Raagi community have been honoured for the first time by the Govt. of India

On the other hand, during its 6 years rule, the BJP Government led by Mr. AB Vajpayee did nothing for Punjab. The Akali Dal supreme S. Parkash Singh Badal raised only one demand, a berth dor his son Sdukhbir Singh Badal in the Central Ministry, which was met. Vajpayee governmet sanctioned a sum of Rs 100 crores for observing 3ooth Year of Ordaining of Khalsa Panth, but only Rs 50 crores were given to Punjab government, other Rs 50 crores were given to Rashtria Sikh sangat to creat confusion about Sikh philosophy and traditions. Sikhs have demanding that marriages of their children should be registration under Anand Marriage Act, and legislation of separate Code Bill for Sikhs, whereas the BJP election manifesto stands for Hindutava and Common Code Bill for all Indians irrespective of religion/dharma.

Regards,
Harbir Singh Bhanwer,
Ludhiana ( India)


On Fri, 17 Apr 2009 17:27:49 +0530 wrote
(writer is a renowned journalist)