Home Deptt likely to issue orders during this week
Advisor recommends routing of APRs through him
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Aug 26: In a sudden development, the Governor’s Administration has decided that the Annual Performance Reports (APRs) of the District Superintendents of Police will be routed through the Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Law and Order and the formal orders in this regard will be issued by the Home Department or the Police Headquarters shortly.
This is being done to make District SPs across the State more accountable to the Additional Director General of Police Law and Order besides to provide the officer manning the post a formal role in the chain of the command in the Jammu and Kashmir Police vis-a-vis judging the performance of these officers.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that Advisor to Governor K Vijay Kumar, who is looking after the affairs of the Home Department, has communicated to the top brass of the Home Department that the Annual Confidential /Performance Reports of District SPs will be routed through Additional Director General of Police, Law and Order.
“Formal orders reiterating this will be issued within a day or two either by the Home Department or the Police Headquarters”, sources added.
It may be mentioned here that ADGP Law and Order is a newly created post by the Government to utilize the experience of a senior IPS officer to deal with the present situation in the State. Generally, the Zonal IGPs are final authorities in their respective zones in dealing with law and order issues, who were hitherto reporting directly to the Director General of Police.
However, the Government has now felt it imperative to give formal sanctity and authority to ADGP Law and Order. It may be mentioned here that a few years ago, K Rajendra, IPS (retd), served as ADGP Law and Order but he did not have any formal command and control over the District SPs.
At present, the APRs of District SPs are written by the range DIGs and zonal IGPs before forwarding to the Director General of Police for further submission to the Principal Secretary to Government, Home Department. Now, Additional Director General of Police Law and Order will be an additional authority who will also be appraising the APRs of District Officers.
“This is for the first time that such a mechanism has been evolved by the Governor’s Administration and it will go a long way in making District SPs more accountable to the ADGP Law and Order”, sources further said, adding “ADGP Law and Order is in a better position to judge the performance of these officers in dealing with the law and order situation in their respective jurisdictions and make necessary comments on their APRs written by the concerned DIGs and IGPs”.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Home Department vide Order No.811 of 2018 dated June 26, 2018 had ordered that Muneer Ahmed Khan, Additional Director General of Police Home Guards and Security, shall also function as ADGP Law and Order J&K in addition to his own duties. It was also mentioned in the order that in respect of law and order matters, Zonal Inspector General of Police (IGP) of Kashmir and Jammu shall report to ADGP Law and Order under the overall command and control of Director General of Police.
However, the Government has at this stage exempted the APRs of range DIGs and Zonal IGPs from being reviewed by the ADGP, Law and Order. It is expected that the next step towards strengthening the ADGP, Law and Order, would include formal review of DIGs and IGPs by ADGP as well, sources said.
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