In a first: UPSC inducts 31 JKPS officers into IPS in one go, including two retired

2 posts reserved for officers facing inquiries, 2 others opt out

*MHA to decide year of induction, some may become DIGs

Sanjeev Pargal

JAMMU, July 21: Creating history, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and Jammu and Kashmir Government today approved induction of 31 Jammu and Kashmir Police Services (JKPS) officers, two of them retired, into Indian Police Services (IPS) and reserved two posts for the officers including one serving and retired who have been facing court cases and inquiries.
This is for the first time in the history of Jammu and Kashmir that 31 JKPS officers have made it to the IPS in one go.
Inductions were approved in a joint meeting of the UPSC, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Jammu and Kashmir Government held in New Delhi at 3 PM. It lasted over an hour.
Besides the UPSC Member, who chaired the meeting, it was attended by representatives of MHA and Chief Secretary Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) RK Goyal and Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbag Singh.
As per the original proposal, 32 JKPS officers of 1999 batch were scheduled to be inducted into the IPS. With the UPSC deciding to reserve one post for RK Bhat, SSP, who had missed out on induction in last meeting held in July 2021, as he is facing inquiry in a case, 31 JKPS officers were finally inducted into IPS.
They include Maqsood-ul-Zaman, Mubassir Latifi Ameer, Shiv Kumar Sharma, Suhail Munawar Mir, Rashmi Wazir, Rajeshwar Singh, Sandeep Wazir, Anita Sharma, Sameer Rekhi, Jatinder Singh Johar, Anil Kumar Magotra, Swaran Singh Kotwal, Zahid Naseem Manhas, Dr Koshal Kumar, Ashok Kumar Badwal, Showkat Ahmed Dar, Parshotam Kumar Sharma, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Bakar Hussain Samoon, Firdous Iqbal, Ajaz Ahmad Bhat, Ranjit Singh Samyal, Mohammad Yaseen Kichloo, Rajinder Kumar Gupta, Rajesh Kumar Sharma, Sanjeev Kumar Khajuria, Rajesh Bali, Zubair Ahmed Khan, Sanjay Kumar Kotwal, Mumtaz Ahmed and Mohammad Aslam.
Two of them including Anil Kumar Magotra and Parshotam Kumar Sharma have retired from the services while two others have opted out of induction.
Besides RK Bhat, one post from the previous quota has also been reserved for Manohar Singh, who too has retired from the services.
Officials told the Excelsior that induction of RK Bhat and Manohar Singh will depend on getting clean chit from the courts or inquiries they are facing. If they get clean chit, they will get IPS. Both of them were eligible for inductions into IPS in July 2021 also when last meeting of the UPSC was held but then too they couldn’t make it because of the pending cases or inquiries.
With today’s inductions, all 44 vacancies of JKPS officers for inductions into IPS have been filled up. However, since two JKPS officers inducted into IPS have retired and two others have opted out, four vacancies will be available shortly. Moreover, cadre review which is also due will lead to creation of more posts for JKPS officers’ induction into IPS leading to more UT officers elevation.
“All officers inducted into IPS today belonged to 1999 batch,” the officials said, adding still 20-25 officers of the batch are left for inductions.
They disclosed that a decision on allotment of year of induction to new IPS officers will be taken by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs depending upon year-wise vacancies available for Jammu and Kashmir in AGMUT cadre.
“Nearly half a dozen inducted officers will become eligible for promotion as DIGs,” the officials said, adding the inductions will lead to posting of local officers on higher posts and will also open up further promotional avenues for them.
Today’s inductions came exactly after two years. It was in July 2021 that the UPSC had approved induction of 14 serving and 12 retired officers into IPS. Posts of retired officers were later treated as vacant and added into total vacancies.
Earlier, the UPA Government headed by Manmohan Singh had created special provision for induction of JKAS and JKPS officers into IAS and IPS with 50:50 i.e. out of total vacancies, J&K got 50 percent direct recruits of IAS and IPS and 50 percent from promotion of JKAS and JKPS.
However, with new Government in power, the `Mantra’ of `One Nation, One Provision’ was implemented and ratio was restored to 67:33 i.e. 67 percent officers will be direct recruits and 33 from promotion quota as was the case in rest of the States/Union Territories. This significantly reduced promotional prospectus of JKAS and JKPS officers.