Syed Ghulam Mohideen Andrabi
The impasse is not new to KPS cadre. In 1984 such arrangement was notified by the Government when the DGP of that time convinced the political leadership of the state that KPS needs to be organised like KAS to give more career prospects to the state police officers who somehow can not make it to IPS. These rules were notified vide SRO 549 of 1984 dated 19/10/1984. However the same invisible hand created the similar misconceptions as a result these rules were kept in abeyance vide SRO 167 of 1985 dated 22/04/1985. It was in the year 2002 that Govt could issue Recruitment Rules for the Police Deptt SRO 132 of 2002 thanks to the efforts of M Ashraf Bukhari who was then working as Dy Secy in Home Department.
Notwithstanding the row over KPS cadre and differences between the coalition partners that surfaced during the last cabinet meeting, local police officers are suffering from the Govt apathy over the finalisation of seniority lists of DySP level. Since the Home Deptt comes under the control of CM he/ she gets little time to indulge in the problems of local police cadre. That being so the cadre management is left to bureaucracy which is hardly interested in solving problems of local cadre. On the contrary IPS officers get their service benefits in a hassle free manner from the same table. Neither the departmental hierarchy nor the political leadership has ever shown any interest in addressing the service issues of KPS officers for obvious reasons.
As per the recruitment rules of 1977/1984/2002 the KPS cadre starts with appoint of DySP level officers 50% through PSC exam and 50% by promotion of Inspectors of police.The direct recruitment got a big pause between 1984 to 1999 when 78 officers were inducted through PSC and thereafter the exams have been conducted almost regularly by the PSC. In between these 15 years, the Police department continued with the induction of Dysp level officers through the promotion route. These promotions were governed by Recruitment Rules of 1977 read with SRO 210 of 1994 & Home Department order 349/ 1986, which fix the Deputation, leave Reserve & Training Reserve posts in KPS, to be counted towards duty posts for calculating the posts for direct Recruitment as well as for promotion to DySP & SP.
The latest impasse owes its origin to the implementation of Supreme Court Decision in the much publicised case Shiekh Ab Rashid Vs State of J&K in 2008 where under the intense pressure seniority of Promotee DySPs was refixed. After a deliberation of 2 years during which representations/ objections of all stakeholders were called & examined a final seniority list of Superintendents of police was notified by the Home Deptt in 2010.
However the directly recruited DySPs of 99 batch feeling dissatisfied with their placements challenged this Seniority List in the Hon’ble High court of J&K at Jammu on the plea that 50:50 quota between direct recruits & the promotees has not been maintained while implementing the Supreme Court decision. The writ court in its order dated 22.11.2011 directed the home Deptt to revisit the issue, hear the parties involved and finalize the exercise by 9th Feb 2012. Since then their has been no clue about the finalisation of the Seniority list.
Informed sources from PHQ and the Home Deptt, on the condition of anonymity, disclosed that the then special secretary in the Home Deptt was instrumental in creating the mess in the finalisation of Seniority of DySPs. He got committees and committees formulated on the same issue and wasted last 5 precious years which is the main cause of stagnation in KPS. By his callous attitude many DySP’s retired having their pension fixed in the rank of Inspector only and scores are woking in OPG even in the rank of SP for many years now. About 40 posts of IPS by induction of local officers are lying vacant. During these years no senior officer could ever spare sometime for this important issues and allowed the drift in the exercise despite lapse of time mandated by the high court. If the insiders are to believed the special secy did not allow any one to even touch these files which remained in his personal locker. His subjectivity can be gauged by the fact that he made PHQ to revisit the Seniority of feeding cadre of promotees and even getting a contradictory advice from the law department by mis interpretation of Rules which gave rise to fresh litigations presently pending in the High court at Srinagar and Jammu. It is this administrative apathy which has lead to the present state of affairs in KPS Seniority which sees no end in the near future. Some in the corridors of power attributed it to his ensuring the stay in Home Deptt while others mention that his agenda was to somehow give undue benefit to certain officers.
Whatever may have been the reason the lost time can not be retrieved but there is urgent need on the part of Minister Incharge Home and Law Depts to address the issue on a priority basis so that morale of the Force is not effected, besides those officers who have given their whole life to police Deptt get their retirement dues without further delay.
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