By Bunty Mahajan
Jammu: Strange are the ways of the UT administration. It has at least 174 state services (JKPS) police officers working as SSPs including 70 of 1999 batch, but none of them has been inducted into the IPS.
In May 2020, when it sent a proposal for the induction of some state services police officers into IPS against 28 vacancies, all except three police officers had already retired. The three – Abhay Mahajan, Ranjeet Kanwal and Rajneesh Paul, too, retired a few months later the same year without getting inducted into IPS.
The vacancies so determined by the Ministry of Home Affairs include 8 for 2010, three (2011), 8 (2012) and 9 (2013).
The non-filling of these vacancies has led to a peculiar situation. The Jammu and Kashmir has, at present, 174 state police cadre officers in the rank of SSPs, but none of them has been given the functional grade of Rs 7600 fixed for officer holding that post. Seventy of these SSPs are state cadre police officers of 1999 batch and they too continue to work in the grade (Rs 6600) fixed for an SP.
Even as the induction of state services officers into IPS is an annual exercise across the country, it has not been held in Jammu and Kashmir since 2008. About 75 JKPS officers were last promoted from DySPs to SPs in 2005 and since then, all of them are still working against the grade of SPs.
Till 2014, the rules pertaining to induction in respect of Jammu and Kashmir were that 50 per cent of the police officers in IPS had to be from state services (JKPS). However, these were not accepted by the new government at the Centre and it reduced the state quota for induction of its officers into IPS by way of promotion to 33 per cent against 67 direct IPS recruits.
“Even thereafter, had the Government set the things right and worked out proper mechanism, nearly 50 JKPS officers would have got inducted into IPS and got promotions to higher posts. At present, only IPS officers can be promoted as DIGs and above,” a senior police officer said, adding that it was responsibility of the Home Department to clear all bottlenecks into the induction of JKPS officers into the IPS and their promotions so that the police officers, who have been doing commendable job in anti-militancy front in the disturbed Jammu and Kashmir do not get demoralized.
In 2017, the PDP-BJP coalition government had decided to give allow them don next rank after five years up to the level of SSP and thereafter give them time bound (non-functional) grades, but declined to promote them as DIG until they were inducted into the IPS.
These ranks, most of us wear are farzi (name sake) as these virtually hold no sanctity in the absence of government granting us the functional grade of posts held by us,’’ said a senior police officer who wished not to be named. One can well imagine the stagnation among police officers from the state services that there has been no induction from among them into IPS since 2008.
There are 70 officers from 1999 batch only and unless you promote them, the officers from subsequent batches will not have any chance for promotion, he added.
Another police officer attributed the situation to step motherly treatment to these middle rung police officers by the Home Department. While the government has done career progression in matters of other state cadre services like revenue, accounts and so on, the Home Department did nothing for the police, he added.
As a result, even officers who figured among the toppers during the J&K Combined Services Examination and opted for police are now facing stagnation at ranks of SP and SSP, while their batch-mate who were far below in rank to them have now become secretaries and hold much higher grade than them.
Now, the proposal for induction of JKPS officers into IPS sent by UT’s Home Department is gathering dust at the Centre with the UPSC raising one after another query about officers having already retired. One fails to understand as to why Home Department is insisting on the induction of some JKPS officers post retirement ignoring the in-service ones facing stagnation.
Sources quoting UPSC/DoPT communications from time to time said that the retirees should not have been included in the list of officials sent by Home Department to the Centre in May 2020 for induction into IPS against available vacancies. In this context, they referred to a 2017 communication from the Central Government which clearly said that any state services officer who after his induction into IPS does not undergo induction course during the period of his probation shall be reverted back to his original position.
For undergoing induction course post induction into IPS one has to be in service, a senior police officer said. If the retirees are inducted into IPS then how they will undergo the prescribed induction course when they are no more serving the organization, he asked.
This sympathetic consideration to get IPS cadre to some officers post retirement is not only demoralizing the in-service JKPS officers who have been facing stagnation for past over a decade, but also defeating the very purpose of Ministry of Home Affairs to fill up vacancies of IPS in Jammu and Kashmir.
