Punjab Police transfers amid turf war hint at who’s stronger
CHANDIGARH:AS fissures in the top brass of Punjab Police came to the fore after DGP (HRD) Siddharth Chattopadhyaya levelled allegations against DGP Suresh Arora, who is chief of the force, and DGP (intelligence) Dinkar Gupta in the high court on Friday, the state government on Saturday transferred 37 officers. The list reflects how Arora continues to have authority, with the government putting officers considered to be in his good books on key postings.
The list brought yet another setback to the chief of the antidrugs special task force (STF), ADGP Harpreet Sidhu, who appears to be opposed to Arora and Gupta. The government has taken back the charge of ADGP of border region from him. Apart from his STF work, for which Sidhu was initially asked to report directly to the chief minister’s office, he was also made powerful in May last year with this post to supervise Bathinda and border zones.
At the time, the rationale was that border areas are more vulnerable to the problem of drugs, so it was necessary to have him in-charge there too. Saturday’s orders of taking back this charge reflect that all was not well between Sidhu and the CMO.
Notably, the CM has already announced during the recent Vidhan Sabha session that the STF will now be reporting through the office of the DGP, Arora. The list has transfers of 32 officers from the Indian Police Service (IPS), including Sidhu, and five from the Punjab Police Service (PPS).
Sharad Satya Chauhan has now been posted as ADGP for traffic, whereas Guarav Yadav, who was ADGP (security), will now be looking after administration wing. Among those who have recently been promoted from IGP to the rank of ADGP, Gurpreet Deo has been posted as ADGP for IT &T and litigation, and Ishwar Singh has been posted ADGP for law and order with additional charge of NRI cell.
Among other ADGPS, Varinder Kumar gets the intelligence wing, Jitendra Jain gets policy and rules, SK Asthana gets modernisation, and Shashi Prabha gets human resource development. RN Dhoke, who was posted as commissioner of police, Ludhiana, has been posted as ADGP for security, whereas Arpit Shukla will now be ADGP (provisioning).
The orders further posted Naresh Arora as IGP (intelligence), Ram Singh, who is returning from his central deputation, as IGP (admin), V Neerja as IGP of Ropar range, MF Farooqui as IGP of Bathinda range, Naunihal Singh as IGP of Jalandhar Range, Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh as IGP (crime) with additional charge of OCCU, Gurinder Dhillon as IGP of Ferozepur range, Mohnish Chawal as IGP (IT&T), MS Chinna as IGP (human rights), Jaskaran Singh as IGP (crime), Yurinder Hayer as IGP (director-cum-igp, MRSPPA, Phillaur), SK Singh as IGP (security), AK Pandey as IGP (law and order), Ananya Gautam as IGP (ATS) with additional charge of financial investigation unit.
AK Mittal will now be DIG (admin) whereas Sukchain Singh Gill is new commissioner of police for Ludhiana. BL Meena is new DIG (crime), Ranbir Khatra is now DIG of Ludhiana range, Deepak Hilori is AIG (intelligence) and Amaneet Kondal is AIG (personnel-ii).
LIST SHOWS ARORA CONTINUES TO HAVE AUTHORITY, WITH GOVT PUTTING OFFICERS WHO ARE IN HIS GOOD BOOKS ON KEY POSTINGS