CM lauds state police team for scaling Everest, says it kissed ‘matha of Sagarmatha’

Uttarakhand Police, which recently became the only state police in the country to have successfully scaled Mt Everest, had an apt praise on Friday from none other than chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat himself.

Lauding the 15-member team of Uttarakhand Police at the flag-in ceremony at Police Lines in the city, Rawat said, “It’s not only a great achievement for the state police department, but for the whole state as well. I won’t say they challenged Sagarmatha by scaling it, rather would say that they showed their respect to it by kissing its matha (forehead).”

Sagarmatha is the name of Mt Everest in Nepalese language and in the Vedic literature.

The team, led by State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) inspector general Sanjay Gunjyal, was flagged off by the chief minister on March 29. Eight of the 15 team members successfully scaled the Mt Everest. Five of the team members scaled the peak on May 20, while three others scaled it on May 21. Others stayed at the base camp to provide support to the ones scaling the peak.

The team members who scaled the Mt Everest comprised SDRF inspector Sanjay Upreti, leading fireman Ravi Chouhan and constables Manoj Joshi, Vijendra Kudiyal, Pravin Singh, Yogesh Rawat, Suryakant Uniyal and Virendra Kala.

Rawat said that the feat achieved by the team members would be an invaluable experience for the state police.

Later, he announced a cash reward of Rs 5 lakh for the whole team. He also announced promotion for the six constables and a salary hike for the inspector and leading fireman. “These sort of expeditions should continue in the police department, as ours is a hill state. It would help in gaining experience in mountain rescue operations,” he said.

Earlier, Uttarakhand director general of police Anil Kumar Raturi said that the success of the mountaineers becomes more significant with the limited resources of state police. “This would help in getting more expertise in mountain rescue operations by the SDRF. More such expeditions would be planned including department’s police female personnel. We want Uttarakhand police to become pioneer in mountain rescue operations in world,” he added.