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Top-heavy Punjab Police get three more ADGPs
Punjab Police in India has promoted three Indian Police Service (IPS) officers to the rank of additional director general of police (ADGP), bringing the total number of ADGPs to 28. The force already had 17 director generals of police-rank officers. Some retired officers have criticised the imbalance in the force, with 17 DGPs and 28 ADGPs, but only 10 inspector generals of police (IGPs) and 20 deputy inspector generals (DIGs). The promotions were made in accordance with the IPS cadre rules, which allow officers with certain lengths of service to be eligible for promotion.
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Chandigarh : The already top-heavy Punjab Police on Monday promoted three Indian Police Service (IPS) officers as additional director general of police (ADGP), taking their number to 28.
The border state already has 17 director generals of police-rank officers, of which three, including Dinkar Gupta, Parag Jain and Harpreet Singh Sidhu, are on central deputation.
Those promoted to the rank of ADGP include 1998-batch IPS officers Nilabh Kishore, Shive Kumar Verma and Jaskaran Singh.
Senior police officers say this is for the first time that Punjab Police’s top has touched a new high.
Of the 28 ADGPs, only one, 1997-batch officer PK Rai, is on central deputation.
According to some retired senior police officers, Punjab Police are a perfect example of imbalanced force as the state is having 17 DGPs and 28 ADGPs, whereas the number of inspector generals of police (IGPs) is only 10 and deputy inspector generals (DIGs) is 20. In total, Punjab has 142 IPS officers.
The effect of the top-heavy force came to the fore when recently an ADGP-rank 1997-batch IPS officer, Naunihal Singh, was appointed as the Amritsar police commissioner, the post which is generally handled by a DIG or IG-rank officer. Similarly, another ADGP-rank officer, SPS Parmar, is posted as head of the Bathinda range, the post handled by a DIG or IG-rank officer.
“There are two major factors behind imbalance in Punjab Police. During insurgency in the 90s, the state was allotted more IPS officers as per the cadre strength and secondly, senior officers are reluctant to go on central deputation, whereas rules say 30% of officers can opt for it,” said a retired DGP-rank officer.
According to a home department official, IPS officers have a vertical tenure-based promotion system in accordance with the IPS cadre rules. Cadre management, however, varies from state to state. Anyone who has 30, 25 and 18 years in service, is eligible to become a DGP, ADGP and IG, respectively, the official said.
Experts say lately it has become a trend in all states that any IPS officer who completes 30 years of service is promoted as a DGP whereas those who have completed 25 years are promoted as IGPs.
