CHENNAI: As many as 84 police personnel holding the rank of special sub inspector (SSI) or below continue to work in the Police Training Headquarters (PTH) in Chennai or the same Police Training Schools (PTS) for seven to 14 years despite at least two memos issued by the office of the Head of the Police Office (HoPF) to immediately repatriate them to their parent unit, citing the tenure of a maximum of three years fixed by the police department.
The latest memo accessed by TNIE was sent by DGP/HoPF (in-charge) G Venkataraman to the DGP (Training) Sandeep Rai Rathore in the last week of September. Recalling the earlier memo sent by DGP/HoPF Shankar Jiwal (since retired), the memo requested DGP Rathore to complete the exercise and send the copy of repatriation orders to the chief office by October 15, 2025.
Though nearly a month has passed since this deadline, multiple sources TNIE spoke to confirmed that the repatriation orders have not been issued yet. The memo issued in September contained a list of 84 officers, whose three-year tenure at the PTH or one of the eight PTSs ended between 2011 and 2021.
The memo issued earlier by Jiwal noted that 205 personnel had completed their three-year tenure, taking into consideration those whose tenure ended after 2021. It noted that any specific exception needed for any personnel for extending their tenure should have proper justification. “Wholesale request with general wordings will not be accepted,” it said.
The memo issued later by Venkataraman stated that although the earlier communication requested the DGP (Training) to send a compliance report by August 28, no reply had been sent to the chief office in this regard.
Meanwhile a few officials TNIE spoke to said that continuance of such tenures, in many cases, affected the quality of training, transparency and accountability within the department. They pointed out that the list of 84 people not only included SSIs and SIs imparting training, but also junior-level personnel like havildars, drivers and constables.
Arguing that any specific requests to retain an official can be done with proper justification as cited in the memos, an official said, “Keeping them too long in these postings without justification leads to administrative fatigue.”
Another officer alleged that friction among senior officers had delayed the process. “There were disagreements at the top over how to handle the tenure list, which slowed down the process,” he said. Notably, both Venkataraman and Rathore are among the list of senior-most IPS officers eligible for the appointment as the next DGP/HoPF, the delay of which has become politically controversial.
TNIE could not reach Venkataraman for a comment, while Rathore said, “I am answerable only to officials, not non-officials. It is an internal matter of the department.”