IPS officer given charge of home ministry’s NE division, an IAS bastion

SATYENDRA GARG IS THE FIRST IPS OFFICER TO HOLD THIS CHARGE, SO FAR HELD ONLY BY INDIAN ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICE OFFICERS

Amidst a public slugfest between IAS & non-IAS services, the government on Monday appointed an Indian Police Service officer to take charge of the home ministry’s NorthEast Division.

Satyendra Garg is the first IPS officer to hold this charge, so far held only by Indian Administrative Service officers. A 1987 batch officer, Garg had last served in Delhi as the traffic chief.

Garg’s appointment came as part of a bureaucratic reshuffle to appoint 22 officers to joint secretary level posts at the Centre, including nine non-IAS officers.

Amongst them is the President’s private secretary Pradeep Gupta, an Indian Ordinance Factory Service officer, who has also been appointed to the home ministry’s international cooperation division.

Garg will be the second JS-level officer in the home ministry. Uttarakhand cadre IPS officer MA Ganapathy, who drafted the Centre’s anti-Maoist blueprint, was the first. Ganapathy later moved to the Internal Security division.

IPS officers said Ganapathy and Garg’s appointment were evidence that IPS and other civil servants — and not the IAS — could handle policy matters relating to the home ministry.

Monday’s appointments have almost halved the number of vacancies at the JS-level from the existing 41.