High-powered committee clears six JKPS officers for DIG-rank posts

Formal orders to be issued shortly
*After postings, reshuffle likely in police

Sanjeev Pargal

JAMMU, Dec 25: The high-powered committee is understood to have cleared names of six JKPS officers presently serving as SSPs for promotion and posting on the posts of DIG-equivalent which have already been identified. All the promoted officers belonged to 1999 batch.
The Committee headed by Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo met here last evening and comprised Home Secretary Chandraker Bharti, Director General of Police (DGP) Nalin Prabhat and Special Secretary Home as the Member Secretary.
Excelsior had the other day exclusively reported that the high-level Committee is likely to order promotion/posting of six JKPS officers on the posts of DIG-equivalent.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the Committee met yesterday and cleared the proposal for elevation of six JKPS officers. As per the Rules, two officers with 22 services can also be posted on IGP-equivalent posts and when this is done, two more JKPS officers will be posted on DIG-equivalent posts, they said, adding that two senior most officers will get IGP-equivalent posts after some time.

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“When formal orders for posting of six JKPS officers who are presently serving as the SSPs are issued on DIG-rank posts, a reshuffle will become imminent in the Police Department as two of the officers are heading districts-one each in Jammu and Kashmir divisions-while one of them is heading Jammu CID wing and another the Crime Branch unit in the Kashmir valley,” the sources said. Two others are posted as Commandants in the battalions.
There is inquiry pending against two JKPS officers who were in the seniority list for elevation to the DIG rank posts.
The promotion of JKPS officers to the posts of Directors in different departments equivalent to the rank of DIG became possible following amendments made in Jammu and Kashmir Police Services Rules by the Government. As per the Rules, only IPS officers can be promoted as DIGs but there was prolonged delay in induction of JKPS officers into IPS due to variety of reasons, a result of which not many officers could be inducted.
However, during past over three years, 44 JKPS officers were inducted into IPS after over a decade.
As per the new Rules, six JKPS officers can be posted on DIG-equivalent posts followed by two on IGP-equivalent posts.
Two posts identified for JKPS officers in the IGP equivalent rank include Commissioner Civil Military Liaison and Commissioner Investigations Human Rights while six posts in the DIG equivalent include Special Director, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Director Civil Defence and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) Kashmir, Director Home Guards Jammu, Director Home Guards Kashmir, Additional Director State Investigation Agency (SIA) and Director Commando Training Centre (CTC) Lethpora.
Eligibility for posting of JKPS officers against the posts of Directors is 18 years while for the posts of Commissioners, the service requirement is 22 years.
A number of JKPS officers in Jammu and Kashmir retired as SSPs as they couldn’t be inducted into IPS.
From 2011 to 2021, no JKPS officer was inducted into IPS due to legal wrangles and other issues. However, during past about three years, nearly 44 JKPS officers have been inducted into the IPS. But the inductions were not enough and many JKPS officers have been working on the posts of SSPs for a long time and won’t be able to become DIGs unless they are inducted into IPS.