E-Paper
Flexibility in rule governing apex pay scales of DG-rank IPS officers
The apex pay scale is granted to secretaries and DGs from various services, including the administrative, police and foreign services.
New Delhi:
The seniority rule governing the pay of the top 11 Indian Police Service officers serving as director generals at the Centre has been made flexible, allowing the government to decide who gets a higher paycheck.
For director generals (DGs) in nine out of 13 posts in central police organisations and paramilitary forces, apex pay scales in levels 17 or 16, the highest pay for bureaucrats, will be decided by the appointments committee of cabinet, the home ministry said in a notification last week.
The apex pay scale is granted to secretaries and DGs from various services, including the administrative, police and foreign services. It has two levels. At level 17, an officer gets ₹2.25 lakh per month excluding allowances. Pay at level 16 ranges from ₹ 205,400 to ₹224,400 excluding allowances.
“The existing pay rules allowed government to choose 11 senior most IPS officers empanelled as DGs for the apex pay scale in 15 organisations. Two of them, director, CBI and director, IB (intelligence Bureau) have already been fixed in the apex pay scale. So, only nine more DGs out of the remaining 13 can get the apex pay scale, as decided by the appointments committee,” said an officer, who didn’t want to be named. “The seniority clause has been kept flexible.”
To be sure, the committee always had the power to give any DG level 17 or 16 in the apex pay scale; the latest notification has formalised it.
The changes were required after last year’s developments, when Tapan Kumar Deka, a 1988 batch IPS officer, became IB chief in July 2022. At the time of his appointment, he was not among 11 senior most IPS officers. However, by the virtue of heading the IB, which is the lead organisation for all police matters, he became the senior most police officer in the country.
On November 30, the government excluded the post of IB chief and CBI director from the seniority rule.
The 13 organisations and posts, besides the CBI and IB chiefs, where DGs are eligible for apex pay scale are: Border Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force, Indo Tibet Border Police, Central Industrial Security Force, National Security Guard, National Investigation Agency, National Human Rights Commission, Railway Protection Force, Sashatra Seema Bal, Bureau of Police Research and Development, Civil Defence and Home Guard, director of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Police Academy and special secretary of internal security at the home ministry.
There are around 24-25 DGs posted at the Centre.
