A senior IPS in Uttar Pradesh has written to Chief Secretary requesting to discontinue the ceremonial Guard of Honour accorded to ministers, top police and administrative officers.
"An IG and senior officers are given guard of honour by one sub-inspector, two head constables and eight constables while others are given such honour by one head constable and four constables. It's a colonial tradition," Amitabh Thakur, posted as IG, Civil Defence said in a letter to Chief Secretary Alok Ranjan.
The guard of honour for a visiting VVIP is a tradition handed down by the British. The honour was reserved then for Governor Generals and Viceroys.
Thakur said the tradition started when the number of senior officers were few, while today the number of officers and political post-holders have increased massively.
Some of these ministers are of "definite criminal background" and giving them such honour hits the morale of police force and sends a wrong signal to the public, he added.
Thakur said UP government should follow the steps of Maharashtra government, which recently abolished this tradition.
This step will save the resources in the staff-crunched state police force, he added.
