Young IPS determined to get their due

CHANDIGARH: They are a group of YoungTurks. Though among the youngest IPS officers in the state cadre, they havetaken the Punjab government by the horns, something their predecessors hadalways avoided doing. And the cause they are fighting for is the dignity of IPScadre.The Punjab government, on its part, has been equally stubbornin not rectifying the anomaly, which is peculiar to the state in the entirecountry.Last week, when a 1998 batch IPS officer Nilabh Kishoremoved a contempt application in the Punjab and Haryana High Court against chiefsecretary JS Gill, Home secretary SK Sinha and DGP AA Siddiqui, it provided ameasure of the determination with which the group of young IPS officers proposesto confront the state on this count.The contempt plea was movedafter the state government kept the court order to post all IPS officers oncadre posts in abeyance for more than a month-and-a-half. The high court haddirected the state to appoint all IPS officers on cadre posts forthwith, as isrequired under the all-India service rules.At least eight officers,largely from the 1997-99 batches of IPS, have joined hands to fight for thecause. Shelling out money from their pockets they have been hiring counsels andfacing hazards of raising the issue in court, knowing fully well that thestate''s wrath could turn on them at any point in the remaining 25-30 years oftheir service.The officers have consciously stayed out of the mediaglare. "We do not intend to make a public issue out of it. Ours is a principledstruggle," says one of them, requesting anonymity.