TIRUVANANTHAPURAM : The IPS Association meeting held here on Monday discarded the bylaws framed almost a year ago in the wake of opposition from a section of police officers who felt forming a society can go against the service rules.The draft of the bylaws was proposed by an officer of the rank of ADGP and seconded by a group of young officers, but the document failed to get the support of the house. Some of the senior officers felt the drafted bylaw was nothing but a rehashed version of the one being followed by the IAS Association. The overwhelming opinion was that the bylaws drafted need not be endorsed by the house.
However, a five-member committee has been appointed to draft new bylaws, which would be tabled during the association’s next meeting in October.Kannur Range I G Balram Kumar Upadhyay has been appointed to chair the committee which will look into various aspects including legal ones that can arise during the implementation of the bylaws. “There was an opinion that the one that was tabled for discussion was a copy of the bylaws being followed by the IAS Association. Since we are police officers, there are certain limits which we can’t cross. So the tabled bylaws got a thumbs down and a new committee has been formed to frame the new bylaws which won’t be contravening the service rules,” said a senior officer.
Though the meeting was cordial, there were sporadic incidents of emotional outburst. When it was told that conducting elections for the post of association officeholders would be damaging, State Crime Records Bureau ADGP Tomin J Thachankary said by picking up president and secretary by nomination, the association was working with a feudal mind set. DGP A Hemachandran, director of Fire and Rescue Department, who presided over the function intervened and reminded Thachankary that by levelling such an allegation he was defaming all the senior officers who had served the office before him. On this, Thachankary mellowed down and sources said he didn’t utter such harsh words thereafter.
“It was a tongue slip at the height of emotional roller coaster and not a calculated attempt to badmouth anyone,” one of the participants told Express.The meeting also discussed in detail the ‘media witchhunt’ launched against them during the orderly controversy and expressed strong resentment over the way some of the upright officers were ‘maligned’ by a section of the media. However, there was also a calculated and poised approach from a section of officers who said that the erring officers should correct themselves as their approach has been bringing bad name to the organisation.ADGP Sudeshkumar, meanwhile, told the gathering that the case involving his daughter was sub-judice and that there was no need for the association to involve in it.