President's Colour Conferred on Chandigarh Police on Diamond Jubilee

The President's Colour was conferred on the Chandigarh Police on 1 November 2026, the day the Union Territory marked its own foundation day and the force completed six decades of work. Amit Shah, Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, was the chief guest at the Diamond Jubilee ceremony. Gulab Chand Kataria, Governor of Punjab and Administrator of Chandigarh, was among the dignitaries present.

What the honour stands for

A force becomes eligible for the President's Colour only after more than fifteen years of service, and the discipline and spirit of its personnel are weighed before it is granted. For the Chandigarh Police the award reads as recognition of six decades of service, dedication and sensitivity. Chandigarh was turned into a Union Territory on 1 November 1966 and made the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana; since then the force has managed the tri-city stretch by working closely with the Punjab and Haryana police. The city sits at the foothills of the Shivalik range and is counted among the best planned in India, but it was not spared when terrorism spread through the region, and the force was credited at the ceremony with guarding the whole northern belt in those years.

The figures in the citation

Chandigarh now records a conviction rate of 85 per cent and takes an average of only 140 days to see an accused convicted, a change from a justice system once mocked as 'Tareekh Pe Tareekh'. Of the 8,206 FIRs registered in the city since 4 August 2024, charge sheets were filed online in 7,590 cases. Convictions in NDPS cases have risen to 93 per cent of accused persons. The Union Government has given the city 2152 CCTV cameras fitted with artificial intelligence. The force answers through a Quick Response Time of ten minutes, with an average arrival time of four minutes, and it was the first in the country to start beat policing after 2015, now run through a Beat Policing App that spares residents a trip to the police station. The three new criminal laws were themselves launched by the Prime Minister in Chandigarh.

Fleet, medals and welfare

The force stands second in the country on response time and is expected to take first place with the new fleet. It has a strength of more than 6,000 personnel across its Crime Wing, Operations Cell, Security Wing, Traffic Police and PCR units, and the city carries the highest number of vehicles per person in India without the jams that go with that. Shah asked the force to put the fight against drugs at the top of its agenda and said Chandigarh would be the first region in the country to become drug-free.