Dilbagh, Sahai in no hurry to become Addl DGP

Valley’s first SPS officer becomes eligible for top ranking Police position

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

JAMMU, Apr 2: Sheikh Owais Ahmad, currently Inspector General of Police, Personnel and Training, at J&K Police Headquarters, is the first incumbent from State Police Service (SPS) who has become eligible for the top ranking position of Additional Director General of Police in Jammu & Kashmir. Three others, who have attained eligibility to become ADG on January 1^st, 2012, are all regular recruits (RRs) of Indian Police Service (IPS). They include IGP of Jammu, Dilbagh Singh, and IGP of Kashmir zone, Shiv Murari Sahai.

With over three years of his service left, Sheikh Owais is likely to get the distinction of becoming first ADG from the SPS. He appeared in Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS) examination in 1977 and was allotted Kashmir Police Service (KPS). On completion of 15 years of his gazetted service, he was inducted into IPS in 1992 with 1987 as his year of allotment.

Both, Dilbagh Singh (Punjab) and Sahai (UP) are non-state subjects who are IPS officers of the year 1987. While as Dilbagh was appointed as IGP of Jammu zone in December 2010, Sahai was appointed as IGP of Kashmir zone in the turbulent times of August 2010. Previously too, he had served a term as IGP of Kashmir. Third of the RRs, who has become eligible after completion of 25 years of service in January this year, is V K Singh, also a non-state subject from UP. Currently posted in Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) in Singapore, Singh is completing five years of Central deputation in June this year.

With V K Singh reportedly inclined to seek extension to his deputation, neither Dibagh nor Sahai seem to be in a hurry to rise to the top ranking position of ADG. Both are holding the most sought positions of the rank of IGP of Jammu and Kashmir zones respectively and neither of them has completed two years of the tenure. According to well-placed authoritative sources, Government itself is in no hurry to hold the much awaited Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) meeting and pave the way for the four IPS officers’ elevation to the rank of ADG. After the DPC clearance, cabinet sanction to the appointment remains just a formality.

“Had the three RRs (Dilbagh Singh, Sahai and VK Singh) been on insignificant postings, DPC would have happened and all of them would have been functioning today as ADG. Owais Sahab is, obviously, the only officer interested in the DPC meeting”, said a middle-rung Police officer. He suggested that none of the three RRs would complain even if the DPC was not held in the next two years. DGP Kuldeep Khoda’s retirement on May 31, 2012, is said to be another reason of a prolonged status quo at the zonal PHQ level. In other words, an early DPC and resultant promotion of Dilbagh and Sahai, coupled with DGP’s retirement, would mean complete reshuffle in Executive Police at all two of its top most rungs. If that happened, in June this year, there would be not only a new DGP in J&K but also new IGPs in Kashmir as well as Jammu executive Police zones. It remains continuously unclear whether Omar Abdullah government was thinking about getting an outsider or one among the two senior most ADGs, K Rajendra Kumar and P L Gupta, would be appointed as the new DGP despite falling short of the 30 years of service in IPS.

“Our IAS lobby is least impatient on the DPC as none of the RRs is pushing the case of elevation”, a middle-ranking KAS officer observed.

However, Principal Secretary Home, B R Sharma, earlier told this newspaper that the state government was keen to hold the DPC and order the promotions as quickly as possible. According to him, previously scheduled DPC got canceled due to the fact that an investiture ceremony, attended by entire top brass of the government including Governor and Chief Minister, clashed with the date. When asked about the new date, Mr Sharma said that Chief Secretary would soon convey it to the Home Department. CS functions as head of the three-member DPC with Principal Secretary Home, B R Sharma, and DGP, Kuldeep Khoda, being its members.

Previously, two of the state police officers, namely S S Wazir and Masud Choudhary, had reached the rank of ADG but neither of them was from SPS as the service was introduced in 1972. Both were from Jammu division. While as Mr Masud Choudhary had been directly appointed as Dy SP by Ghulam Mohammad Sadiq’s government in 1967, Mr Wazir had been similarly appointed---without appearing in IPS or any other competitive examination---in 1961. Two of the similarly appointed Dy SPs, namely Mr Manmohan Khajuria and Mr Ghulam Jeelani Pandit, even reached the highest rank of DGP. Mr Javed Makhdoomi came from the first batch of SPS (KAS-1972) but he retired only as IGP. With this background, as and when elevated, Mr Owais would become the first from SPS to reach the top rank of ADG.

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