BENGALURU: There is likely to be a change of guard at the CCB, Bengaluru City Police, with the impending promotion of Deputy Inspector General of Police and Joint Commissioner (Crime) Sandeep Patil on December 31, along with three other DIGs -- Labhuram, Harsha and Vikas Kumar Vikas -- to the post of Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His senior, IGP and Additional Commissioner of Police (East) S Murugan is due for promotion as Additional Director General of Police along with IGP, Criminal Investigation Department, KV Sharatchandra. The promotion and posting of Murugan and Patil is likely to result in a reshuffle in the Bengaluru City Police.
Meanwhile, with the induction of 26 Karnataka State Police Service (KSPS) officers into the Indian Police Service (IPS), cadre management of IPS officers has reportedly become a huge challenge. SP rank officers form the bulk of IPS cadre in Karnataka. Out of 187 IPS officers, 116 are SPs. The cadre strength of IPS officers is 215, and sanctioned cadre strength of SPs is 57. Of 116 SPs, seven are currently on Central deputation. The remaining 109 SPs are posted in the State, including in ex-cadre posts, like SPs of BDA, BMTC, Bescom etc, which according to sources are “more sought after than cadre posts for obvious reasons”.
With the induction of 26 KSPS officers into IPS, the number of SP-rank officers will increase further. The midriff of the IPS cadre -- IGP-rank officers -- is comparatively lesser in Karnataka than other rank officers. As against the sanctioned strength of 28 IGPs, there are only 14 in the State.
Asked about the influx of SP-rank officers, DG&IGP Praveen Sood said that having more number of SPs is not an issue because they are cutting-edge rank officers. “The cadre should not be top-heavy,” he said. “This year’s induction has come after a gap of five years. Hopefully, now onwards we will have yearly induction of state police officers into the IPS,” added. Litigation is seen as one of the main reasons behind a long gap in induction of state-level officers into the IPS. The last induction was in 2016.