Aparna Kumar, 1999 NLSIU Bangalore graduate and 2002 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, has been bestowed the government’s Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award 2018 by the President of India for her mountaineering achievements.
She is a Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police in the Uttar Pradesh cadre.
In January of this year, she had been the first IPS officer to ski to Antarctica’s South Pole and has also conquered the highest peaks on all seven continents.
A video of the prize giving ceremony, awarded for “land adventure”, is available on YouTube.
The award carries a Rs 5 lakh cash prize, with a total of six awards handed out this year for adventures relating to land, sea and air, as well as for life time achievement.
The President of India tweeted yesterday:
President Kovind confers Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award 2018 upon Ms Aparna Kumar.
She has climbed the Mount Everest and the highest peaks of Africa, Australia, South America , Europe and Antarctica.
She is the first IPS Officer to ski to the South Pole.
— President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) Thu, 29 Aug 2019, 19:52
Earlier this year she told CNBC TV18 how she had been bitten the mountaineering bug:
I saw the glorious snow-clad Himalayas for the first time in 2002 after I cleared the Civil Service examinations. After almost 12 years, my serious relationship with nature and mountains began in 2014 when I was posted as the Commandant of the 9th Bn PAC, Moradabad, in Uttar Pradesh. The 9th Bn PAC was previously known as the Special Police Force (SPF) and has had a glorious history of high-attitude mountaineering. It manned sensitive high-altitude posts along the Indo-Tibetan/China border in Uttarakhand, which were later handed over to the ITBP.
My fascination for the mountains and curiosity towards mountaineering equipments, gear and tentage kept at the battalion triggered me to do a basic mountaineering course at the Atal Behari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports, Manali, in October 2013. In July 2014, I completed an advanced mountaineering course from the same institute and thereby, my journey of climbing began.
Fellow NLSIU graduate Nandan Kamath also accepted a sports promotion award from the government yesterday.
Comments
IPS is not "armed forces". Aparna is not a "sportsperson". I don't see the connection between the duties of a DIG, Uttar Pradesh Police and scaling Mt Everest. High altitude mountaineering is an expensive hobby and the expedition cost for Everest is more than 50 lakhs rupees. If Aparna is doing this on her own salary and on leave then good for her, great achievement. If shes doing this on government expense and time (which is what looks likely) I would like to know the justification. Looks like a classic case of milking the mammaries of the state (with hat-tip to Upmanyu Chatterjee).
Mahire raised some valid points.
This lady IPS officer is not a sherpa or a mountaineering guide. I asked a few IPS officers and not one of them ever had a mountaineering course at the Police Academy, nor is it part of the curriculum. In fact one of them responded quite snarkily and said "there are many ways to train character other than 8000m high altitude mountaineering".
I then looked up IPS academy curriculum and high altitude mountaineering is not listed there.
This ignores the fact that it is nonsensical to suggest that a police officer at the age of 35-40 needs to "Develop" character and leadership by getting sponsored freebies around the world climbing mountains.
Maybe SAM and CAM should also send their partners to climb Everest ??? But they dont? So what that means?
The only thing this headline shows is the utter lack of accountability on spending public money in this country. Our roads are potholed, waterlogging continues for days, railway tracks use old tech, hospitals are 50 years behind the west, but somewhere an IPS officer in UP gets lakhs to enjoy life ... and then gets a medal for it. BRAVO
Please don't forget that when terrorists attack a city like Bombay and civilians run for life, it's IPS officers like Hemant Karkare (not at all taking credit away from any other junior police officer) who go out to protect your running-for-life ass. Just to give an example.
My 2 cents
- There is no established nexus between successful mountain climbs and being good as a civil servant (or armed forces). Neither Hemant Karkare , Vijay Salaskar or Sadanand Date (since they are being quoted) had any such "training" . Neither did General Manekshaw, the Keelor Brothers (IAF), Lt. Arun Ketrapal or Maj. Hoshiar Singh. In police none of the successful police bosses like Ribeiro, KPS Gill, or Kiran Bedi had climbed anything more than a few flights of stairs.
- There currently exists no provision for such training in civil service rules. [...]
https://uppolice.gov.in/viewIPS.aspx
She has held no such deputation prior to that day based on persmin record of MHA.
So in a period of 22 months shes been given leave and sponsorship from the government to merrily scale seven peaks in seven continents and go skiiing on the south pole. Pretty damning squandering of public money in my view. I am glad there is a debate on this. All too often lal-batti obsessed youngsters get carried away by these shenanigans and fail to ask relevant questions of accountability and transparency. How is this different from NLU faculty who get paid and bunk classes?? Same pathetic lack of accountability in both cases.
For the sake of PR and marketing, lots of government departments probably spend similar amounts on newspaper and billboard ads, parties and conference sponsorships, charity fun-runs, etc.
The IPS might very well see this as a worthwhile investment to attract more women (and adventuring types) into the service, and each mountain she climbs certainly gets regular media coverage so you could argue it's been pretty decent value for money...
Meanwhile ITBP men in rank and file continue to get the shoddy end of the deal like the BSF jawan who complained of inadequate food.
https://wap.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/itbp-constable-dies-of-cobra-bite-at-barrack-in-up-119070100986_1.html
Needs no PR. One of the best jobs in India.
As for your example about Aswath, sorry but nobody will EVER remember some whatever paper-pushing bureaucrat in some stinky government office who signed a file on the orders of his minister / boss. If at all apart from ministers anyone will at all be remembered its the lawyers. Can you recall the names of ANY IAS officer who took part in any government deal where a top law firm acted? IPS is even worse. At any given moment we might know 6-7 IPS officers who are in the news but we know a lot more lawyers.
Corruption in IAS / IPS is the norm. Theres hardly any opportunity to work with integrity and the ones that do are opting out quickly. But hey if you want a free trip to South Pole financed by Sunil Panvelkar's land taxes while he starves to death in Marathwada, be my guest and sit for the UPSC.
Really? which bubble are you living in? Only lawyers will take note of other deals and remember the lawyers. In the IAS community, all of them will only remember the IAS officers who got this closed.
In the banking community, the bankers will only talk about the bankers.
The common citizen will only blame / credit the CM or PM of the day.
Saying "only the lawyers will be remembered" is navel gazing at its finest.