“I don’t care if people call me mad for cleaning streets,” says Padma Shri awardee and retired IPS officer Inder Jit Singh Sidhu, who was out picking up trash from the streets of Sector 49, Chandigarh, on Tuesday morning.For Sidhu, who has earned the affectionate moniker of the “Broom Warrior”, the day begins with a broom in hand as he cleans roads and public spaces.The Padma Shri Award that he received from President of India Droupadi Murmu in June this year for his exemplary work in field of cleanliness has not changed him even a bit.Not just collects, segregates tooOn Tuesday morning, while the city was waking up to its daily routine, the “Broom Warrior” spent over one-and-a-half hours cleaning public areas in Sector 49. He started around 6.10 am by picking up trash and garbage on streets and then went on to segregate the same.Despite his fragile health, he pulled out stray branches of trees by hand and left them at the places where Municipal Corporation workers could take them away in trucks.Sidhu said one day, while he was engaged in the cleaning work, some persons asked him to stop and even laughed at him. Some said he was mad, he said, adding that such comments didn’t affect him. He said that he would continue to do the work till his last breath.’Confronting litter mongers not my job’“See the cleanliness in other countries and compare it with the state of affairs in ours. Cleanliness is not the responsibility of the government only. It is the job of every citizen to keep the city clean,” he said.Sidhu said that he knew who all throw garbage and trash in his area. “But, my job is not to confront them or fight with them. I hope that seeing me clean the area day in and day out will make such people realise what is wrong and what is right.”Sarjeet  Singh, a neighbour of Sidhu, said that they are proud of his work. Sidhu retired from Punjab Police in 1996 on the post of Deputy Inspector General (DIG). When he saw littering and garbage around the residential society in which he lives, he complained to the Municipal Corporation, but nobody paid heed. He then decided to clean the area himself.From boxer in college to DIG, Punjab PoliceInderjit Singh Sidhu has been disciplined since childhood. He did his master’s degree in economics from Mahindra College, Patiala, and was also a boxer during his college days. In the year 1963, he was directly recruited as an ‘Inspector’ in the police department. He was promoted in Indian Police Service (IPS) in 1981. Inderjit Singh was the city SP of Amritsar during the period of terrorism in Punjab. After retirement, he gave up the chance of living a comfortable life and took up the broom to help keep society clean.