바카라Officers of the Jammu and Kashmir Police should get the grade and the position, but not the rank. A difference must be maintained between officers of the Indian Police Service (IPS) and the J&K Police Service (JKPS),바카라 says Ashok Kaul, BJP바카라s general secretary (organisation) in J&K. 바카라The services would be doomed if JKPS officers became IGPs without induction into the IPS.바카라 That바카라s the crux of the rift caused within Jammu and Kashmir바카라s ruling PDP-BJP coalition over the creation of a separate cadre service바카라with enhanced promotion avenues바카라for 바카라direct-recruit바카라 officers of the 1.2-lakh-strong J&K Police. When the home department바카라s proposal was approved by a cabinet sub-committee last week, it was evident the BJP바카라s will had prevailed over the home department바카라s original proposal.
Policing The Trust Ceiling
J&K바카라s two ruling parties manage an uneasy peace over how high non-IPS officers can rise in the police set-up
The proposal that the home department had come up with last year envisaged a Kashmir Police Service (KPS) whose officers could be promoted to DIG and IGP ranks irrespective of whether they are inducted into the IPS. This would be on the lines of the Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS), whose officers are appointed as administrative secretary, a post equivalent to IGP in terms of the pay grades.
Recruitment to the KAS is made through the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission (PSC), which was established in 1957 with Major General Yadev Nath Singh as its first chairman. The PSC selects the direct recruits through the J&K Combined Services Competitive Examination. The first batch of KAS officers were recruited in 1972, the second in 1977 and the third in 1984. Since 1999, the exams have been held regularly. Police officers selected through this process have been demanding promotions, grades and a separate state cadre service like their counterparts in KAS. In fact, the direct-recruit police officials have been calling themselves KPS officers already.
A former police officer, who joined the department in 1984 as a direct recruit at the same time as an IPS officer, says, 바카라Despite a good service record, I retired as SSP and the IPS officer retired as DGP. We thought this government would rectify the wrong.바카라 He was among those who were disappointed last December, when the state바카라s BJP ministers opposed the home department바카라s proposal in a cabinet meeting. CM Mehbooba Mufti left that meeting in a huff. The proposal was later referred to a sub-committee, which eventually approved it with modifications and called for the creation of the JKPS.
The modifications meant that only four DIG posts (in charge of home guards, vigilance and civil defence) and two IGP posts (civil-military liaison and human rights) would be open to officers not inducted into the IPS. 바카라The officers on promotion shall not be designated as DIGs and IGPs, respectively,바카라 the order reads. 바카라They shall be posted only against the posts identified in the proposal and with different designation. They shall not be posted against any other cadre posts of IPS.바카라
Cop faces stone-pelters
The state바카라s police officers had sought that direct recruits posted as DySP should be promoted to selection-grade DySP after five years, then to SP after another five years, and after five more years, to SSP. This has not been accepted, as promotions and grades remain subject to vacancies. Many officers are calling this 바카라gross injustice바카라.
바카라I think the government doesn바카라t trust the police,바카라 says a senior police officer. 바카라Last year, after the lathicharge inside the National Institute of Technology (NIT) campus in Srinagar, no one objected when we were described as terrorists. This year, we have been denied promotions and grades for no reason at all.바카라 Another officer quips, 바카라We are seen as suspects who cannot be trusted as IGP of Kashmir or Jammu.바카라
On April 4 last year, when the J&K Police resorted to a lathicharge on 500-odd non-local students of NIT who wanted to take out a procession outside the campus, the central government intervened and the police were removed from the campus. The students, who had previously hoisted the tricolour in the campus as a reaction to Kashmiri students celebrating India바카라s defeat in the T-20 World Cup, had accused police of highhandedness. BJP MP and former Panchajanya editor Tarun Vijay made an indirect reference to the police when he tweeted, 바카라Absolutely no excuse. Protecting Tiranga students frm wolves state responsibility. Indians cant be traumatized in India for being patriotic.바카라 Film-maker and CBFC member Ashok Pandit바카라s tweet was more direct: 바카라We always said #J&K police are #terrorists in the police uniform. Their heart has always been with #Pakistan.바카라 In the months since, militants have killed over 15 police personnel, but Pandit has not deleted his tweet.
In the aftermath of the NIT fracas, for the first time in the history of the INSurgency, J&K police officers expressed their anger and disappointment on social media. DySP Feroz Yehya posted on Facebook: 바카라Many of my colleagues have been asking and many more must be thinking whose war are we fighting? All I can tell them is that, this is just another phase and will pass. Further JK Police doesn바카라t need any certificate from people like Mr Arnab Goswami바카라.바카라 Baramulla SSP Imtiyaz Hussain wrote, 바카라100s of our colleagues in JKP hv gone bck 2 deir homes in coffins wrapped in #Tiranga fighting to uphold it바카라s honour. Stand with #JKP #NIT.바카라
Similar sentiments have surfaced once again. 바카라It is for the sake of the country that we have fired at others and have also been hit by bullets. We shouldn바카라t be denied our grade and promotions,바카라 says a senior police officer. Since 1990, over 1,500 policemen have been killed in J&K, including a DIG, 20 DySPs, 23 inspectors and 34 sub-inspectors. The police have not just played a vital role in maintaining law and order, but their elite formation, the Special Operation Group (SOG), was also singlehandedly responsible for bringing down the number of militants from thousands in 1996-97 to 200 at present. Founded in 1994 as a counter-insurgency force comprising local policemen, the SOG helped in somewhat closing the gap in intelligence-gathering faced by the army and the BSF, which comprise mostly non-locals. Soon the SOG came to be seen as a 바카라dreaded force바카라 in the Valley. In December 1999, militants attacked its headquarters, killing 14 policemen, including a DySP.
Some former SOG chiefs are miffed with the government order, saying it 바카라looks like the SOG is unworthy of promotions and grades.바카라 바카라We are not saying we should be given special benefits for our professional work of counter-insurgency or law and order. We will do it anyway. We are saying, give us our due,바카라 says a retired police official known for his role in counter-insurgency operations.
According to PDP insiders, had the BJP accepted the original proposal, it would have helped strengthen the police force, which will have to gradually take over law-and-order duties from the paramilitary forces and army. Since Sheikh Abdullah바카라s time, successive J&K governments have tried to promote local officers in administrative and the police posts. In fact, both National Conference (NC) and the PDP have long been advocating the appointment of local police officers in sensitive posts. In 1984, the then NC government had come up with a proposal to ensure equal opportunities for state police officers, but it didn바카라t move forward. In January 2011, the then CM Omar Abdullah had said, 바카라It is a constant endeavour of the state government, supported by the Centre, that more and more responsibility is transferred to the J&K Police. Gradually, we will reduce the role of the army and central paramilitary forces, particularly in urban areas. This is an ongoing process and it will continue.바카라
In September 2015, Abdullah바카라s successor as CM, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, told army officers in Srinagar that the army바카라s 바카라role in internal security of J&K is almost over바카라 and they 바카라need to focus on the borders바카라. That is why many in the J&K Police are surprised by the BJP바카라s decision not to fully support the state home department바카라s proposal about promotion and grades of JKPS officers. The home department, incidentally, is headed by CM Mehbooba Mufti.
PDP insiders say their party has been striving to create 바카라a unique system in Jammu and Kashmir, under the larger nationwide system바카라. This time, they say, the PDP tried to take the BJP along, but the latter saw the move to have a separate state cadre service for the police as an assertion of autonomy by a regional party. Being a party that believes in the 바카라full integration바카라 of J&K in the Indian Union, the BJP opposed it.
BJP spokesman Sunil Sethi, however, says his party is on the same page with the PDP on the issue of sensitive field postings being given to officers only after they are inducted into the IPS. 바카라You have to make a distinction between the sensitive field postings and other postings,바카라 says Sethi.
Government spokesman and senior PDP leader Naeem Akhtar calls the creation of a separate state cadre service for the police a 바카라revolutionary step바카라. 바카라We have reached one important benchmark. We can go further. Who is stopping us? It will evolve with the time. A good foundation has been laid because the J&K Police is a distinctive force, which has to fight on many fronts, generally in very adverse circumstances. That is why the CM took the lead in this and I believe it is a revolutionary beginning. The stagnation that was harming the individual officer바카라s interest and the morale of the force has now been beaten,바카라 Akhtar says.
Pointing out that there has been no induction of J&K officers into the IPS since 2008, Naeem says, 바카라We are trying to clear cases about seniority that are pending in court and holding up around 50 slots in the IPS. Once that is done, there will be a better field for the state.바카라
By Naseer Ganai in Srinagar