The Police Academy chief in Telangana and senior IPS officer VK Singh has threatened to resign from service if he is denied promotion. Singh has reportedly written to state Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar that though he was empaneled for the post of Director General of Police (DGP) three months ago, the government had still not taken up the matter of his promotion.
Sources say that Singh is expecting to be promoted in the rank of DGP but the government has yet to decide, even though there is a vacancy following the retirement of Tejdeep Kaur Menon, DG, Special Protection Force, in April, and T Krishna Prasad, DG, Road Safety Authority, in March.
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Singh is a 1987-batch IPS officer and has alleged that officers of 1986 batch of regular recruits of Telangana cadre were promoted three years ago without clear vacancies. Similarly, IAS officers of 1989 batch of Telangana cadre were also promoted without clear vacancies. IPS officers of 1989 batch of many states, including Andhra Pradesh, were promoted long back.
Will the miffed senior cop act on this threat?
High sacrifice
Babu-watchers observed curious detail about the Indian government’s fightback against the COVID-19 pandemic. Turns out that at least six states have witnessed a rather quick turnover of principal health secretaries during the lockdown. Most recently, the Uttarakhand government removed Principal Health Secretary Nitesh Jha and moved him to the irrigation department.
Other babus who met a similar fate are Sanjay Kumar in Bihar, Vivek Kumar in West Bengal, Jayanti Ravi in Gujarat, NB Dhal in Odisha, and Pallavi Jain Govil in Madhya Pradesh. Clearly, they lost their posts on account of their handling of the COVID-19 crisis. Interestingly, all these officials were known to be close to their respective political masters before the pandemic struck.
The question many are asking is whether these babus lost their job for mishandling the crisis or to deflect public criticism of the respective state chief ministers? Each of these states is among the worst-affected in the country and is struggling to cope with the pandemic even as the number of positive cases and deaths continues to rise. Perhaps it is easier for netas to avoid criticism by making scapegoats and send a message to the public that it is they who call the shots. Not very reassuring, though.
CVC’s directive
New Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) Sanjay Kothari has reportedly instructed all ministries and government departments to conduct internal inquiries and departmental proceedings against public servants much before they retire. Kothari has directed all Chief Vigilance Officers (CVOs) and other administrative authorities to send requests for inquiries in the first week of the month when the concerned officer is retiring.
This is the first major decision taken by Kothari since he was appointed CVC last month. Actually, since 2007 many CVCs have written to government departments on the issue to ensure that the accused babus are brought to justice in time. Clearly, that has not happened. There have been many cases of alleged corruption by babus that were not dealt with even until the retirement of the accused officials. In his missive, Kothari has urged the CVOs and other authorities to prioritize cases against officers who are on the verge of retirement. Further, action will be taken against CVOs who delay inquiries and disciplinary proceedings against public servants.
Kothari clearly wants to see some progress on this long-standing issue, but will the “system” respond?
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