‘DEADWOOD’ IPS OFFICERS REMOVED
Home ministry acts tough on 2 Chhattisgarh cadre officers ‘in public interest’
NEWDELHI/RAIPUR:In a strong message to ‘inefficient’ officials, the Centre has compulsorily retired two IPS officers of Chhattisgarh cadre AM Juri and KC Agarwal ‘in public interest’.
This is the second instance in recent months when the home ministry has acted tough against Indian Police Service (IPS) officers for inefficient performance or doubtful integrity and compulsorily retired them from service.
“I have received the order of the government and am going through it,” Juri told HT on phone.
The other IPS officer, KC Agarwal, was not reachable for his reaction despite several attempts.
Juri is currently posted as assistant inspector general (planning and provisioning) while Agarwal was with the police telecommunication department.
The action has been taken under All India Service Rule 16(3) that says the central government in consultation with the state government concerned can retire an officer of the service in public interest after serving them notice in this regard.
“The officers have been served notice in this regard. This should not be construed as punishment,” said a Union home ministry official in Delhi on the condition of anonymity.
The official added that the Centre reviews performance of the three All India Services officers — the IPS, the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), and the Indian Forest Service (IFS) — at two stages, once on the completion of 15 years and again on completion of 25 years of service.
“The performance review of the IPS officers was conducted to weed out deadwood,” an officer of the home ministry said.
According to the service rules, the Central government may, in consultation with the state government concerned, require a member of the service to retire in public interest, after giving at least three-month notice in writing or as many month’s pay and allowances in lieu of such notice.
Another home ministry official said there were complaints of alleged misconduct by the two officers.
In January, the ministry acted against two other IPS officers — Raj Kumar Dewangan from the 1992 batch of Chhattisgarh cadre and Mayank Sheel Chohan from the 1998 batch of the AGMUT (Arunachal, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territory) cadre — and served them notice of compulsory retirement.
Juri was scheduled to retire in 2019 and Agrawal was slated for retirement in 2020.
Juri and Agrawal were promoted to the IPS from state police in 2011 and were allotted the 2000 and 2002 batches respectively.
Juri was earlier posted as SP Balod and SP Baloda bazaar and was for the last few years attached to various departments in the police headquarters at Raipur.
Agarwal, on the other hand, was SP Jashpur, SP Rail, and then shifted to telecommunication department of the Chhattisgarh police.