The J&K Lieutenant-Governor administration’s recent transfer order issued to 31 police officers by the Home Department instead of the Director General of Police (DGP) has come under severe criticism from former DGP Shesh Paul Vaid.
“The order of DySP (Deputy Superintendent of Police) issued by Home Department instead of the DGP J&K is an attempt to weaken the authority of J&K Police Chief, Dilbag Singh and the J&K Police Department. Since inception the power to transfer DSP was with the police chief,” Mr. Vaid, who was DGP of J&K from December 2016 to September 2018, prior to the abrogation of Article 370 in the erstwhile State, said in a series of tweets.
Mr. Vaid said the “repeated attempts” by the Union Territory’s civil administration to weaken the authority of the Police Headquarters and the police chief has had a detrimental effect on the morale of the J&K Police’s rank and file.
“Earlier, recruitment of Sub-Inspectors was taken away from Police HQ and given to civilian body, SSRB (Service Selection and Recruitment Board) which not only bungled and landed in controversies of scams of a highly transparent recruitment process held once by Police HQ,” Mr. Vaid alleged.
He said the J&K Police had been facing an extraordinary situation for decades and nothing should be done to weaken the police department and its chief. “This needs your urgent intervention,” Mr. Vaid said, tagging Union Home Minister Amit Shah and and J&K L-G Manoj Sinha to his tweets.
Ever since the Centre ended J&K’s special constitutional position on August 5, 2019 several measures have been taken to regulate the police service in Kashmir. For the first time, scores of Indian Police Service (IPS) officers were given the role of Station House Officers (SHO), and most districts came to be headed by IPS officers rather than local cadre of the Kashmir Police Service (KPS). The administration also decided to disallow the practice of the Police Headquarters holding recruitments for middle and lower rung staff in J&K.
Seconding ex-DGP Vaid, Shafqat Watali, former Inspector General of Police (IGP) who joined the National Conference in 2019, said, ”The J&K Home Department has ordered transfers and postings of DySPs. This is unprecedented as these powers were vested in DGP J&K. This unwarranted micromanagement by Home Department is bound to weaken the institution of DGP in this sensitive State and can breed indiscipline and insubordination.”
