CHANDIGARH: Punjab Police has a strange problem—it is top-heavy. The state has a staggering 12 Director General of Police (DGPs), 13 Additional DGPs and 43 Inspector General of Police (IGPs).
The government recently promoted all officers till 1987 batch to DGPs while all officers till 1992 batch became ADGP. The total authorised cadre strength of IPS officers in the state is 172. There are only two cadre posts of DGP (Punjab Police DGP and DGP Home Guards-cum-Civil Defence).
The remaining 10 officers are on ex-cadre posts as the state order said posts of ADGPs have been kept in abeyance and these officers have been promoted. But as per rules, only two ex-cadre posts can be created by the state.
There are 13 ADGPs against the sanctioned posts of seven (Intelligence, Security, Armed Battalion, Training, Crime, Law and Oder, Information Technology and HRD-cum-Community Policing).
An officer said, “When the proposal was moved to promote the officers of 1987 batch as DGPs, the home department had raised a verbal objection, but it was overruled. In Punjab, the whole batch is promoted after the Departmental Promotion Committee meeting. It is not like other states where a single officer is promoted at a time.’’
A proposal for setting up Special Protection Group (SPG) will be placed in the next Cabinet meeting. The SPG will be headed by an ADGP-rank officer with an IGP and a DIG-rank officer to assist him.
There are 43 IGPs in the state against the sanctioned cadre strength of 19. The four-month-old Congress government has proposed that posts of DIG (Range) be abolished and should be IGP (Range).