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Punjab chief secretary slams brakes on promotion of eight ADGPs as DGPs
At present, as per gradation list of IPS officers, available on the Punjab police website, 15 IPS officers have a rank of DGP out of which — Parag Jain (additional secretary) and Harpreet Sidhu, are serving on central deputation.
Chief secretary KAP Sinha has put on hold the process of the promotion of eight additional director generals of police (ADGPs) to the rank of director generals of police (DGPs), raising questions over the top heavy police force.
Punjab already has 15 DGPs, and if these officers are promoted, the strength will go up to 23.
Confirming the development, home secretary Gurkirat Kirpal Singh said the file, with objections raised by the chief secretary, has been received by his office.
“The file has been referred to the personnel department to provide answers to the objections raised by the chief secretary,” the home secretary said.
As per senior officers, privy to the development, Sinha has asked the state home department to clarify how many posts of DGPs can exist in Punjab and has also raised an issue of two contradictory rules submitted by the home department with regard to the promotion of the officers.
The home department initiated the process of promoting eight ADGPs of the 1994 batch to the rank of DGP in November last month. According to a home department file, IPS officers have a vertical tenure-based promotion system in accordance with IPS cadre rules. Cadre management, however, varies from state to state. Anyone who has served 30, 25 and 18 years in service is eligible to become a DGP, ADGP and IG, respectively, in Punjab.
Experts said it has become a trend in all states that any IPS officer who completes 30 years of service is promoted as a DGP. Besides rank, the officers’ are entitled to pay, other perks and facilities.
Contradictory rules
As per the provision and notification of the personnel department of the government of India, Punjab has two sanctioned posts of DGPs.
The notification issued in 2010 by GOI under All India Services Act, 1951 (LXI of 1951), read with sub-rules (1) and (2) of rule 4 of the Indian Police Service (Cadre) Rules, 1954, the Central Government, in consultation with the Government of Punjab, made regulation which said that Punjab can have one post of DGP (head of police force), one DGP for home guards and civil defence.
However, the Centre’s IPS cadre rules permit the government to create more posts of DGPs on a temporary basis for a maximum of two years.
The pay rules say that a state can create only equivalent posts as allowed in the Centre’s cadre rules, which means Punjab can only create two more posts of DGPs in the state.
With these contradictory rules, the chief secretary has questioned the creation of more posts.
15 officers with DGP rank
At present, as per gradation list of IPS officers, available on the Punjab police website, 15 IPS officers have a rank of DGP out of which — Parag Jain (additional secretary) and Harpreet Sidhu, are serving on central deputation.
Gaurav Yadav is the head of the police force, while Parmod Kumar, Sanjiv Kalra, SS Chauhan, Kuldip Singh, Gurpreet Deo, Varinder Kumar, Ishwar Singh, Jitendra Kumar Jain, Satish Kumar Asthana, Shashi Prabha Dwivedi, RN Dhoke and Arpit Shukla have DGP rank.
The home department moved the file for promotion of 1994 batch IPS officers which included Dr Naresh Kumar, Ram Singh, SS Srivastava, V Neerja, Amardeep Singh Rai, Parveen Kumar Sinha, B Chandra Sekhar and Anita Punj.
It is learnt that the concerned IPS officers also met the CS but to no avail.
The development has not gone well with the IPS officers, who said that this is the first time that an objection has been raised regarding the process.
“It’s a double standard of the IAS lobby and it will delay our promotions, which is due on December 31. It is for the first time that the CS has raised such objections deviating from existing policy to promote officers who have completed 30 years of service to the rank of DGP,” said an IPS officer, who is due for promotion.
