Policemen flay peers who lobby for prize posts

MUMBAI: In a scathing attack, the Indian Police Service (IPS) Association, Maharashtra, has castigated a section of fellow officials for using touts and middlemen to win prize postings.
This is perhaps the first time that the association has acknowledged the existence of such middlemen and that some officers were jockeying for power using questionable means, a source said.The association on Monday passed a resolution condemning this new culture. The resolution will be forwarded to the government, sources said.
“Till now, officers only talked privately about who paid how much money to get a posting. Several officers were agitated that a handful of black sheep were giving a bad name to the entire force,’’ a senior official told TNN.
Officer after officer spoke about how a section of their colleagues had introduced a system of harakiri in the force. Many young officers also spoke about how demoralised they felt when they saw that postings were bartered rather than being given on merit and efficiency.
The meeting was chaired by the president of the association and Mumbai police commissioner M.N. Singh, and was attended by Thane police commissioner, S.M. Shangari, Nagpur police commissioner K.K. Kashyap, additional director general of police (training), O.P. Bali,ADG (state traffic) A.N. Roy, ADG (state CID) A.K. Agarwal and almost all range IGs from the state. In another resolution, the association demanded that the state government formulate a policy on deputation.
The meeting took a serious view of the fact that only certain officers were being picked for deputation while others were found indispensable and retained in the state.
“Everybody knows what is the criteria for retaining an officer in the state. A deputation to the central agencies plays a very important role when it comes to recommending the officer for service medals. But today, even those who have never been on a central deputation manage to get recommended for the medals,’’ a senior officer said.
The meeting emphasised that the Maharashtra cadre must maintain the standards of its great past. Officers recalled how the state cadre occupied a place of pride in the national capital and in allied investigating agencies.
“Mohan Katre went on to become director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, while S.M. Vaidya was director of the Intelligence Bureau,’’ a senior IPS official recalled. He recalled how then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi had specially called for the services of Suryakant Jog and posted him as the police commissioner of Delhi in the wake of the 1984 riots.