Brows raised over one-year extension to Bathinda DSP

BATHINDA: A deputy superintendent of police (DSP) has been granted a one-year extension in service by the state home department.

A blue-eyed boy of the ruling Congress, Gurjit Singh Romana, deputed as a DSP-1 in Bathinda since July 2018, been granted re-employment even as the Punjab government’s policy scrapped service extension policy for its employees from March 31, 2020.

Officially, Romana retired on Saturday. But Bathinda senior superintendent of police BS Virk said he will continue duty from Sunday.

According to an official order issued by the state home department on July 26, Romana’s re-employment tenure will end on July 31, 2022, and he will not be entitled to promotion during the extension period.

Additional chief secretary, home, Anurag Agarwal said Romana’s extension was not a violation of the policy. “The Punjab government can grant re-employment to anyone in exceptional cases,” he added.

The decision of re-employment has not gone well with the government officials, who claim several employees were unable to apply for the extension due to new rules.

A senior Punjab civil service (PCS) officer said the government decided to do away with the policy of granting extension in service to open opportunities to the unemployed.

President of the Punjab Civil Service (PCS) Officers Association Manjeet Singh said according to the policy, no state government employee can enjoy re-employment.

A media-savvy cop, Romana was in the thick of controversy in 2017 when he was indicted in two departmental inquiries for releasing an accused in a drug case. He was held guilty for his suspected role in the FIR lodged against Gobind Gupta for allegedly having an illegal stock of 1,500 habit-forming tablets.