THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The IPS Association meeting scheduled for July 16 is expected to witness turbulent moments on the account of two agendas which would be discussed in the house.
The first and foremost will be ratification of the state bylaws which were framed almost a year back but have been kept in abeyance ever since.
The bylaws were formulated to enable the registration of the association with the Registrar of Companies. The Police Act, 2011, allows the formation of category-wise unions and the brains behind such a move to induct state bylaws felt the state government won’t have any opposition in recognising registered unions.
By registering the association as a union, meetings can be held officially and the proceedings take a democratic shape, it is being said. Hitherto, the association meetings are held during crime conference meetings convened by the State Police Chief (SPC) where all the IPS officers participate.
Also, the current set up doesn’t have a regular president while the secretary and the persons selected to preside over particular meetings are nominated by the SPC; and in the case of the current SPC Loknath Behera, he is not even a member of the association.
Most state police units have their own state act (bylaws) in addition to the Central Association Act. The bylaws formulated here last year were heavily drawn from that of Odisha police.
A senior officer, who bats for state bylaws, said the move would help end the undemocratic practices in the association.
“The present meetings are just sort of conventions and have no legal validity. There is no proper auditing and the decisions of higher officers are being passed off as decisions of the association. With the bylaws coming into existence, the situation will change drastically,” he said.
Once the bylaws are passed by the house, then a Memorandum of Association will be drafted so that the registration process can be started.
However, the move is expected to face opposition as a section of officers feel there is no point in forming a union.
Still, a majority of them feels formalisation of the association is needed and since the government is in favour, there is no harm in doing so.
“We are not going to be on a collision course with anyone. So, there won’t be any opposition from the state government,” said sources.
Agenda 2: Orderlies issue
The second agenda of the meeting will be to discuss the ‘recent issues’, including allegations levelled against some officers for illegally keeping orderlies and camp followers.
There has been a strong observation from young IPS officers there were no efforts from seniors to protect the interest of officers who were unfairly targeted.
“One of the officers doesn’t have children and yet some media reported the orderlies were being used to ferry his kids to schools. Though a few officers misused their power, a majority of them have been on the right side of the law.
There is no consensus so far on how to deal with such witch-hunt, but there is a unanimous opinion something should have been done,” said another officer.