In the din and bustle created by everyone concentrating on the alleged political interference in the investigation of Securities Scam in the ‘Madhavan affair’, the basic issue raised by him, namely the personnel policies in the Central Police Organisations (C.P.Os.) has been lost sight of. As rightly stated by the Minister of State for Dept. of Personnel, the issue is common to all C.P.Os. and a decision is not possible piecemeal in individual cases and a comprehensive view is to be taken in the matter.

The basic issue pertains to the career prospects of directly recruited officers of C.P.Os. vis-a-vis the deputationists - primarily IPS Officers. All C.P.Os., recruit Class-I Officers as Directly Appointed Gazetted Officers (DAGO) on scales and status almost equivalent to Junior Scale IPS. There is hardly any difference between the DAGOs and the IPS Officers at the entry level in respect of educational qualifications, age and other aspects and both come from the same social millieu. Only difference is that all DAGOs are not recruited by U.P.S.C. IPS officers are, after training, allotted to various State Cadres and are eligible for deputation to all Central Police Organisations and acquire expertise in civil policing. DAGOs serve only in the CPO to which posted. Consequently, while the IPS Officer becomes a generalist, DAGOs become specialists in the area of skills and operations of the CPO concerned.

Over the years, the role and tasks of CPOs have expanded and their functioning has become highly complex calling for a higher degree of professional skills and expertise. Gone are the days when the higher echelons of the CPOs concerned themselves only with administrative policy, welfare, coordination and high level liaison. Today, the senior officers of CPOs in fact lead their men personally in operational tasks. This calls for high degree of professional skills and if one belongs to a CPO, he gets the added advantage of growing up with the organisation and assimilating the required skills, professional ethos in addition to acquiring personal experience.

As the CPOs, by virtue of their tasks, have been created and maintained to serve the country as a whole and to help the States in times of need, relations and coordiantion with the State administrations becomes one of the important duties of the senior officer in the CPOs. IPS officers, by virtue of their past services in the States, are familiar with the problems of the State administration and are in a better position to undertake this task with ease. This was the main rationale in taking IPS officers on deputation to the CPOs.

All CPOs have a certain quota of posts earmarked for deputationists at senior levels from DIG upwards. In the view of DAGOs, this reservation is disproportionately high and is detrimental to their career prospects. They also aver, rightly, that their career prospects are linked to their organisation only whereas the IPS Officer deputationist has a wider choice and scope as he can freely move from one CPO to another. Further as IPS Officers move on a relatively fast career track, it is not uncommon to find an IPS officer supervising the work of DAGOs, who are both senior in age and the length of service at Class-I level.

The problem gets further compounded due to erratic career management of IPS Officers. MHA insists on a fixed tenure for IPS Officers at various levels which range from 4 to 7 years, five being the normal tenure. Consequently, very few of the IPS Officers manning the senior CPO posts can claim to have adequate expertise in that particular organisation. IPS officers are reluctant to come on deputation to the Centre at the levels of S.P. and D.I.G. due to unattractive terms of deputation and due to better prospects in the States. Those who opt for deputation are generally those who wish to serve in areas nearer their homes and who are ‘outsiders’ in their own cadres and who are victims of ‘BHUMIPUTRA’ syndrome in the States. They get back to the States for tactical reasons to get over the ‘cooling off’ period between two spells of deputation and come back to the Centre. Most of the CPOs do not have their presence all over India and posts in Para-Military Forces (PMFs) are concentrated in the North. Consequently, IPS officers from Southern States and regions other than the North are reluctant to come on deputation to CPOs except I.B. and C.B.I.

To be a professional leader in a C.P.O. in his own right, an IPS Officer should have served at the level of S.P. at least for three years. This is absolutely necessary in PMFs where operational tasks are in the field.

Only I.B. has got over this problem by having a scheme of permanent secondment of IPS Officers. IPS Officers are picked up at the level of Supdts. of Police and after an initial period of service of three to five years, those found suitable for working in the I.B. are permanently seconded to that organisation by the States. These officers grow up in the organisation to take up senior positions. No other C.P.O. has this system.

Thus the problem boils down to:

1. How to provide officers with professional expertise to man higher posts in the CPOs.
2. How to dovetail the need to induct IPS Officers in the CPOs without adversely affecting the career prospects of DAGOs.
3. How to remove the existing frustration among DAGOs due to stagnation in their career prospects.

There are short and long term measures to solve these problems.

1. With immediate effect increase the quota of promotion of DAGOs to the rank of DIG to 60% and at the level of IG and above to 50%.
2. Have a limited competitive examination by UPSC for recruitment to the IPS for DAGOs and those who come out successful be posted on permanent secondment to the CPOs to which they belong. Such limited competitive examinations have been held in the past for ECOs and others.
3. Increase the age of retirement for DAGOs at SP level to 58.

1. With immediate effect stop the system of recruitment of DAGOs to CPOs.
2. Simultaneously, increase the cadre strength of IPS Officers on All India basis and increase the deputation quota for the Centre.
3. Evolve a system of permanent secondment to CPOs after an IPS Officer gets into senior-scale and holds District charge for two years.

1. Make two year deputation to a C.P.O. compulsory from the stage of S.P. to enable an Officer to be promoted to the next rank. A central deputation enables an IPS Officer to take a macro view of the problems and familiarises them with managing large forces. This is an excellent HRD input and would benefit the individual officers. Needless to add, MHA will have to ensure that every IPS Officer gets this opportunity.

It is suggested that the Government of India may appoint a high powered committee to consider all these issues and solutions and come up with a report in three months time. The Committee should ascertain the views of the present and past Chiefs of C.P.Os; Chief Secretaries and Directors General of Police of the States; Representatives of DAGOs and I.P.S. officers to make the report acceptable to all sections. It would be necessary for the Government of India to bring forth suitable amendments in the All India Services Rules and the Rules of CPOs to give effect to the findings of the Committee.