Bengaluru: In a bid to boost the morale of its personnel which has been flagging – suicides and rebellion were major concerns within in the department— the Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP) cycled 1756 km in 14 days led by Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Bhaskar Rao.
Calling it “Karnataka Darshan”, a group of 56 KSRP personnel started of the journey on 12th July from Bidar and finished the tour by arriving at Vidhan Soudha on 25th July.
They were received and felicitated by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah at the end of their journey which covered Bijapur, Belagavi, Shimoga, Gadag, Mysore and Hassan districts.
Rao, the 53-year-old IPS officer leading the cycle marathon, said that the department planned the trip just 30 days in advance and had meticulously planned every stretch.
“KSRP needed a good dose of adventure sports which united all the battalions because for the past 3 years we had seen too many deaths, resignations, suicides, and cases of depression,” he said.
The group covered around 160 km a day and touched all major police centres in the state. Every district they visited, they interacted with the locals and school kids. In Belagavi, they took up the issue of Kannada language – Kannada Ulisi Kannada Belesi (Save Kannada and let Kannada grow) as the border district witnesses a tussle between locals and marathis.
The cyclists spoke about Swachh Bharat, Fitness, benefits of environment protection, safety of school children and road safety. They also held meetings in temples, masjids, churches and gurudwaras along the way.
With a foresight of injuries, the team also had a professional physiotherapist, masseuse and a dietician.
All 56 cycles for the trip were imported from Indonesia at cost of Rs 30,000 per cycle. A sports company that designs jerseys for Tour de France was roped in to design their jersey.
KSRP is planning to make this a yearly event and will include women personnel in the future.
“The successful completion and the support of the Government especially the Chief Minister has made us to explore new areas of adventure sports like rowing, yachting, scuba diving, river rafting, hiking and mountaineering, after all we need to keep a young reserve force energetically engaged,” Rao said.
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