Inderjit Singh Sidhu
A retired police DIG known as Chandigarh's "broom warrior", who has cleaned its parks for 30 years, honoured with the Padma Shri in 2026.
Every morning for nearly thirty years, Inderjit Singh Sidhu has gone out with a broom. The retired police officer has become known in Chandigarh as the “broom warrior”. In 2026 he was named for the Padma Shri in the field of social work, from Chandigarh [1].
Boxer and policeman
Sidhu was born on 6 June 1938 in Gagarpur village, Sangrur district [2]. He studied at Government Ranbir College, Sangrur, and took a master’s in economics at Mohindra College, Patiala, where he was a champion boxer [2]. Even at NCC camps he was noted for volunteer cleaning work [2].
He joined the Punjab Police as an inspector in 1963 and was promoted to the IPS in 1981 [2]. He served in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Kolkata, and in the Samba sector during the 1971 war [2]. He received the Police Medal for Meritorious Service in 1991 and retired in 1996 as DIG (Intelligence), Punjab [2].
The morning walk
After retiring, he was troubled by the litter in the parks where he walked each morning, so he began picking it up himself [2]. For nearly three decades he has cleaned parks, streets and public spaces, written to the authorities about sanitation and encouraged sanitation workers, even when others were indifferent [2].
He was doing this long before the Swachh Bharat Mission began, and he is still at it in his late eighties [2].
Sources
- [1] Padma Awards 2026: list of awardees — Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Accessed 11 October 2026.
- [2] Padma Awards 2026 investiture ceremony brochure: citation for Inderjit Singh Sidhu — Press Information Bureau, Government of India. Accessed 12 October 2026.
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