It has been more than four years since Lata, a female police constable, a native of Davangere, started serving in the city. Earlier, she used to have trouble talking to people in Tulu for fear of reprimand by the locals. With a month of training, Ms. Latha has not only developed confidence in speaking Tulu, but has also written a short poem in the language.
Police constable Umashree from Hassan district and Manjamma from Ballari district also share Ms Latha’s sentiments. “This month-long training has helped us hold talks not only in Tulu but also in Beri,” said Ms. Umashree. Ms Mazamma thanked the resource persons for effectively training the personnel in Tulu and Beri communication.
These three are among 55 police personnel who have completed their one month training in Tulu and Beri in the office of the Commissioner of Police.
Most of the police personnel working in the city are from North Karnataka and Central Karnataka and efforts are being made to train them in Tulu and Beri. The then police commissioner M. Chandrashekhar took the initiative in 2016 to train the personnel in the two native languages. Now, Police Commissioner N. Shashi Kumar has resumed the training programme.
Shri Kumar said that it is necessary for the personnel to adapt according to the area in which they are posted while following the language, culture and tradition. This becomes much more important for the personnel as they need to connect closely with the local people and curb anti-national activities in the coastal area.
Tulu training was given by Rajesh Kadri and Sudha Nagesh, two resource persons deputed by Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Akademi. Shamshir Budoli and Razak Ananthadi, members of Karnataka Beri Sahitya Akademi conducted the beri training session. The training session was conducted from 4th August to 5th September between 9.30 am to 4 pm.
Appreciating the effort of the personnel in learning both the languages, Mr. Kumar in his concluding remarks on Tuesday asked the trainees to make good use of their new skills in police work. Taking the example of Ajay Kumar Singh, a former Director General and Inspector General of Police, who had a doctorate in Kannada Vachan literature, Mr Kumar asked the personnel to study Tulu literature.
Mr. Kumar said that in the coming days, more personnel would be given training in two languages.
Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Akademi President Dayanand Kattalsar asked the trainees to share the language skills learned among their colleagues.
Deputy Commissioners of Police Hariram Shankar, BP Dinesh Kumar and Channaveera Hadpad were present.