The Union Home Ministry has suspended a notification issued last month to merge senior ranks of police from Chandigarh and five other Union Territories, including Delhi.
The decision to include Chandigarh in the unified force was opposed by both the Congress government in Punjab and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), an ally of NDA.
Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal of the SAD has written to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and had also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue.
The MHA had last month notified the National Capital Territory of Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Chandigarh (Police Service) Rules, 2018.
The decision was based on a 2012 report of the Intelligence Bureau detailing the “corruption and extortion nexus” of policemen posted in Chandigarh. There were plans to include Puducherry police also.
“The notification of MHA dated September 25 merging the posts of DSPs of Chandigarh police with Delhi Andaman and Nicobar Islands Police Servicehas been kept in abeyance till further orders,” a Home Ministry spokesperson said.
