Proposal eludes consensus, sent to committee headed by chief secretary
PANEL WILL STUDY IMPLICATIONS OF THE MOVE ON CAREER OF OFFICERS PROMOTED FROM LOWER RANKS
CHANDIGARH : The state government’s proposal to scrap the post of deputy inspector general (DIG) at the range-level in Punjab Police has now been sent to the ‘officers committee’ led by the state chief secretary to study its implications on the career of officers promoted from lower ranks.
Sources in the home department revealed that the proposal was sent to the committee after it was brought up for discussion in the previous meeting of the state council of ministers.
Notably, rural development minister Tript Rajinder Bajwa has strongly opposed this move, saying it would have adverse impact of the career prospects of police officers coming through Punjab Police Service (PPS) cadre and it would curtail their promotion chances.
Sources said finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal and technical education minister Charanjeet Singh Channi have also opposed this move, following which it was referred to the officers’ committee. The director general of police(dgp), secretary (personnel) and secretary (finance) are also members of this committee.
Under the proposal, the police ranges will be deemed as zones and each zone will be headed by an Ig-rank officer, who is generally recruited from the Indian Police Service (IPS) cadre.
Finance minister Manpreet Badal, who addressed the media after the cabinet meeting here on Wednesday, also confirmed that the proposal has been referred to the committee to study its implications.
DON’T WANT TO DEMOLARISE ANY SECTION: MANPREET
“The state government doesn’t want to demoralise one section of the force. The morale of the force should not be let down at any cost and that’s the reason why chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh has ordered that the proposal be looked into properly before taking any final decision,” said Manpreet.
He, however, said the matter was not put up for discussion in the cabinet meeting on Wednesday. “Any decision in this regard would depend on the recommendations of the committee,” he added.
Meanwhile, the reports about the scrapping the DIG’S post at the range level have come as a great shock to PPS officers, who feel the move will cause stagnation in their career after a certain period of service.
However, a senior Punjab Police official, who is behind the move, claimed that in order to give level playing field to the promotee PPS officers, who get promoted as DIGS, the police headquarters is planning to recommend to the government to also retain the option of appointing a DIG at the range level.
“In the police commissionerate system, an officer of the rank of IG or DIG can be a police commissioner. Similarly, we can have a system where an IG or a DIG can be posted at the range level,” he said. The idea behind this move, the official said, is to end the overlapping of work in the field and post the surplus staff at police stations.