ahmedabad in a first 2600 newly recruited constables are studying lessons on mahatma gandhis life they will take a test on gandhis autobiography my experiments with truth next month the test conducted by navjivan trust is not mandatory for the police personnelinterestingly on september 17 when these constables under departmental training are set to take the test on gandhi prisoners in sabarmati central jail too will be sitting for tests to prove their knowledge of the life of gandhijisome 2600 lok rakshak dal lrd jawans who are undergoing training in ahmedabad will sit in the examinations in four different centres in the city navjivan trust the publication house founded by the mahatma will conduct the test police have purchased copies of gandhis biography from navjivan and distributed them among the new recruitswhat led the department to devise this exercise joint commissioner of police administration r j savani explains most lrd jawans are preparing for competitive exams where gandhian philosophy and indias freedom struggle are important parts of question papers on general studiesduring the training when certain questions were put across to them savani and other officials came to know that new recruits had little knowledge about gandhi and his ideology we found that most lacked good reading habits thus we decided to incentivize the process he said adding that the toppers will be awarded prizes of rs15000 rs10000 and rs5000 for winning scores in the examinationsavani said further that it is a firstofitskind initiative in gujarat police in which jawans will be encouraged to read good literature we believe that it would help them in their jobs as well if the initiative is successful we plan to extend it to other books as well like those written by vinoba bhave j p narayan and so on savani said it would not only increase their social awareness but also form their ideological base he told toinavjivans managing trustee vivek desai saidthe examination on gandhis life will be held simultaneously in the jail and at the police department however we still do not know the number of examinees as applications from jail inmates are pouring inthe practice of holding an examination on the topic of gandhiji began in sabarmati prison last year in all 363 prisoners took the tests last year and main accused in the 2008 serial blasts case safdar nagori topped the exam