The uniform of the police personnel in the Bed Police of Maharashtra is now going to look a little different. The surname will no longer appear on their uniform along with the name. The Superintendent of Police (SP) of Police (SP) Navneet Kanuth in Maharashtra’s Bed district has decided to remove the surname (surname) from the name plates of the police personnel. According to the police, now only their first name and position will be written on the name plates.

The police department says that this step has been taken to end caste-based discrimination and ensure impartiality within the police force. According to SP Navneet Kanuth, “We policemen have no caste. We have no religion. We are just ‘khaki’ for everyone.” He added that the police personnel should call each other by their first names instead of surnames, so that caste-based prejudice can be reduced. This step is part of the efforts to reduce the increasing communal violence in the district.

It is worth mentioning that Sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh, who belonged to the Maratha community, was murdered in Bed. His killer was from the OBC community. After this murder, an atmosphere of communal violence was created in the district. The investigation into this murder incident revealed that Valmiki Karad, despite being an OBC community, continued to harass, hurt and beat up many OBC people. Therefore, whoever the culprit is, his caste does not matter. But people like Valmiki Karad were strengthening themselves by playing the caste card in the system. This is what Satish Bhosale, a Maratha community member involved in deer smuggling and criminal activities, has been doing, who is currently absconding in the case of beating up a father-son couple from Bed.

In order to prevent the rise of caste-based politics in the Beed district from affecting the work of the government department, especially the police department, every soldier, inspector and senior officer in the Beed district will now have to write only their first name, leaving aside the mention of surname. Earlier in January this year, SP Kanuth had instructed the officers to call each other by their first names instead of surnames, so that racial prejudice can be prevented. Now a decision has been taken to remove surnames from the official nameplates as well.