Row over Nagaland ‘DGP removal’

The attempts of the newly sworn-in Progressive Democratic Alliance government in Nagaland to remove the state’s director general of police Rupin Sharma have sparked a controversy.

The office of deputy chief minister Y Patton, who also holds the home portfolio, released a statement Tuesday, saying the state government’s efforts have been misinterpreted by the press, a day after a letter written by Patton to Union home minister Rajnath Singh seeking a replacement for Sharma found its way to social media platforms.

Patton said it was “very unfortunate that the confidential correspondence of the highest level has been leaked in social media in an unauthorised manner.”

Patton, in a letter to Singh on March 28, requested that the Centre consider “posting an officer of sufficient seniority from other cadre as DGP Nagaland.”

He said Sharma, a 1992-batch Indian Police Service officer of Nagaland cadre, was made the state police chief as a “stop-gap arrangement” since the elections were due and that he did not have the requisite experience. Patton recommended the name of Lungriading, an IPS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre from the 1990 batch, for the top police post in the state.

It later emerged that chief minister Neiphiu Rio and state chief secretary Temjen Joy also wrote similar letters to Singh. Rio asked for Lungriading’s appointment while Joy did not recommend any name.

The letters said that while an experience of 30 years is necessary for the police chief’s post in other states, in Nagaland, those with an experience of 28 years have been considered in the past.

The opposition Naga People’s Front (NPF) launched an attack against these attempts, calling it a case of “malafide intentions” and said, “rather than looking into the number of years an officer has served, he (the deputy CM) should consider the performance index of the officer.”

“Patton has a track record of flouting all norms and procedures to get his candidates appointed or allotted contract and supply works,” the party said in a statement. “His wayward behaviour whilst running the administration was a major source of embarrassment to the last ministry and he was dropped from the ministry, albeit at the fag end of the tenure, and severely reprimanded,” it added.

GUWAHATI: NAGALAND CM AND CHIEF SECRETARY HAVE SIMILARLY WRITTEN TO RAJNATH SINGH TO REPLACE THE DGP WITH ONE OF THEIR CHOICE