Central call for 3 IPS officers on Nadda duty; state says no

Central call for 3 IPS officers on Nadda duty; state says no

Trinamool MP Protests Against ‘Pressure’ Tactic

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Kolkata: 13.12.2020

The Union government has “requisitioned” for central deputation the services of three senior IPS officers who supervised BJP national president JP Nadda’s Diamond Harbour rally security, prompting the Bengal government to express its “inability” to relieve them.

The central move comes two days after Thursday’s attack on Nadda’s convoy on Diamond Harbour Road and a day after the Union home ministry asked the state chief secretary and the state director-general of police to meet the Union home secretary in Delhi on Monday.

The Centre usually seeks the state’s consent before such a move, say officials in Kolkata. “These are Bengal cadre IPS officers. This is a unilateral decision taken by the Centre. Bengal, like the rest of the country, is battling a pandemic under specific laws. So, in this backdrop, the state cannot relieve these officers immediately,” a senior state official said.

The officers caught in the centre-state battle are South Bengal inspector-general of police Rajeev Mishra, Presidency Range deputy inspector-general Praveen Kumar Tripathi and Diamond Harbour superintendent of police Bholanath Pandey.

The issue also found mention in a letter Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha chief whip Kalyan Banerjee wrote to Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla on Saturday. Banerjee, also a lawyer, wrote: “You named three IPS officers for central deputation. All three IPS officers were deployed near the place of occurrence (of Thursday’s incident involving Nadda). Your motive is very clear... you want to create pressure on the officers.”

The Centre’s letter to Bengal seeking specific officers for central deputation did not have any “immediate precedence”, officials here said. One senior Bengal officer was transferred to the Union home ministry in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha poll but that move was effected by the Election Commission.

The usual procedure for central deputations starts with the state government sending its “offer list” (a panel of officers), say officials. The Centre then informs the state government which officers can go on central deputation.

3 officers not on ‘offer list’ sent by Bengal to Centre

About a dozen Bengalcadre officers are now on central deputation; they include a special director-general of police in CRPF, a joint secretary in the cabinet secretariat, two CRPF additional directors-general, a National Crime Records Bureau director and another IPS officer on deputation to the ministry of external affairs.

The three officers asked to go on central deputation were not on the “offer list” sent by Bengal to the Centre, officials here said.

The Centre wrote to all states, including Bengal, in April and November this year, mentioning that they were not sending enough officers for central deputation. Both letters added that all disputes would be referred to the Union home ministry, whose decision would be binding.

Bengal has an IPS cadre strength of around 350 officers and 75 are required to be put on the “offer list” for central deputation. But officials say Bengal works with a fewer number of IPS officers, of whom nine are still undergoing training.

“The states have always used this rationale to not allow officers to go on central deputation,” a senior state government officer told TOI.

The Centre and the Tamil Nadu government have been involved in a protracted legal case on this issue that has reached the Supreme Court. Central deputation rules stress on “concurrence” between state and central governments but they add that the Centre’s decision will be binding if there is any dispute, say officials here.

Bengal has an IPS cadre strength of around 350 officers and 75 are required to be put on the “offer list” for central deputation. But officials say Bengal works with a fewer number of IPS officers, of whom nine are still undergoing training. “The states have always used this rationale to not allow officers to go on central deputation,” a senior state government officer told TOI