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Jammu, Mar 23 (UNI) In a bid to keep the police stress free, the Jammu and Kashmir Police Department has opted sports and yoga as new methods of ''de-stressing'' the cops for more efficient working.

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Armed, S Owais Ahmed, while interacting with the mediapersons on the eve of inter-battalion sports meet here yesterday said sports in the police department was introduced with an aim to ''de-stress'' the policemen of routine duties and to develop sportsmans spirit among them.

''Under the scheme 'welfare of jawan', it has positively been considered to make our cops stress free. We have already introduced various courses for them, which are being attended by our force in routine,'' Mr Owais told UNI.

''A survey was conducted within the state police and it was found that stress has entered in police and to stop it from tightening its grip among our jawans, an initiative was taken in the form of sports, yoga and meditation, which is now a routine for the cops,'' the IGP added.

''Though a couple of incidents of suicidal attempts and shooting colleagues, have been reported in the police department but as compared to the army and other belt forces the number is very less,'' Mr Owais said asserting, ''methods of de-stressing our jawans have been introduced for healthy police department.'' He said that services of yoga instructors and physical trainers are being adopted by the department while sports have been kept on priority as it is an element of evaluating and de-stressing.

''Sports meet is a platform for our jawans where they interact and share to their buddies participating from various districts, which automatically acts as a technique of de-stressing and make them more efficient,'' Mr Owais said.

UNI VBH RAR BST1900