The Padma Awards 2026 honour several eminent civil servants whose lives exemplify service beyond duty, discipline beyond designation, and commitment beyond retirement. Among them are veteran IPS officers K. Vijay Kumar, Inderjit Singh Sidhu, and civil servant R.V.S. Mani – each representing a distinct dimension of nation-building.
Eighty-eight-year-old Inderjit Singh Sidhu, a 1964-batch IPS officer who retired as Deputy Inspector General (DIG) from the Punjab Police in 1996, has become a symbol of civic responsibility. A resident of Sector 49, Chandigarh, in the IAS-IPS Officers’ Cooperative Society, Sidhu ji has spent over a decade cleaning his neighbourhood streets every morning at 6 a.m. Using borrowed sanitation carts, he personally collects litter and disposes of it at designated points. Unfazed by criticism or age, he firmly believes that cleanliness is a citizen’s duty. His quiet, consistent effort has inspired residents and earned him the Padma Shri for his exceptional contribution to public service.
Another Padma Shri awardee, K. Vijay Kumar, is a highly decorated IPS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre, best known for leading Operation Cocoon in 2004, which culminated in the elimination of forest brigand Veerappan in Dharmapuri district. A specialist in counter-insurgency, Vijay Kumar successfully dismantled Veerappan’s support network by gaining the trust of local communities and planting an informer within the brigand’s inner circle. He later served as Director-General of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) from 2010 and advised the Union Home Ministry on Left-Wing Extremism and Jammu & Kashmir security matters.
The 2026 Padma list also includes R.V.S. Mani, who has been conferred the Padma Shri for his distinguished service in the field of civil administration.
Together, these honourees reaffirm that true public service is measured not by position, but by lifelong dedication to the nation.
