MADHYA PRADESH: IAS-IPS SPAT
Chouhan’s talk of police commissionerates across the state unsettles civil bureaucracy
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s proposal to create police commissionerates in Madhya Pradesh has expectedly pitted the state’s IAS and IPS cadre against one another as the move would mean transfer of magisterial powers from the IAS and subordinate revenue officers in the districts to police officers.
At a law and order meeting on March 26, Chouhan proposed the new system, starting with Indore and Bhopal. He reasoned that the civil magistracy was overburdened with revenue work. When state chief secretary B.P. Singh suggested that the matter needed discussion, Chouhan reportedly said he had already made up his mind. Seizing the opportunity, senior police officials promptly drafted a proposal to notify police commissionerates in the two cities.
Two days later, however, the chief minister appeared to have had second thoughts. Asked at the India Today State of the State Conclave in Bhopal on March 29 if he was implementing the police commissionerate system, Chouhan was cautious: he would “take some steps to strengthen the law and order situation,” he said. The next day, he held an hour-long meeting with the chief secretary where, it seems, Singh was able to make Chouhan see that his decision could have an adverse impact on the civil bureaucracy.
Meanwhile, even as the Madhya Pradesh IAS Association convened an unofficial meeting to discuss the ramifications of the proposed switchover to the new system, the president of the state IPS Association, Special DG Sanjay Rana, publicly supported the move.
IAS OFFICERS FEAR THE POLICE COMMISSIONERATE SYSTEM WILL DILUTE THEIR AUTHORITY
Sources say the squabble is linked to a draft public safety regulation bill that outlines the legal framework for maintaining records of tenants, hotel guests, car rentals, installation of CCTV cameras in malls and safety issues in buildings. IAS officers are apprehensive that the commissionerate system, coupled with the proposed legislation, will dilute their powers.
However, some quarters question whether the chief minister is really serious about creating police commissionerates in Bhopal and Indore. For, rather than making this possible by amending the Police Act, which would need approval in the legislative assembly after a discussion, Chouhan asked the police headquarters to implement the police commissionerates through an executive order. Such a move opens his decision to greater scrutiny. For instance, one can move court and ask why police commissionerates weren’t being set up through an amendment in the Police Act, as has been the case with all states, except West Bengal.
Others see it as a move to keep the police and civil bureaucracy on tenterhooks in an assembly election year. With Chouhan making a slew of announcements in the run-up to the elections, the last thing he would want is the bureaucracy questioning his decisions and delaying them. Not just that, Chouhan has made similar announcements twice earlier, ahead of polls.