PANJIM: Several police inspectors who are eagerly waiting for the promotion to the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) besides being upset over the inordinate delay in filling the existing places are also opposing the concept of direct recruitment for these high-level posts.
Majority of the officers who joined the department, some 25-30 years ago, on the post of Sub-Inspector have managed to get only one step higher to rise to the level of PI.
Recommendation of Gore Commission ignored
These officers who are now eying for the second promotion of their life to the post of DySP are pointing out to the recommendations of Gore Commission, which had suggested that this higher rank should be filled with promotion. The report recommended 100 per cent promotion to fill up the vacancies.
The struggle to get promotion in the Goa Police Department has a long drawn history, which can be traced as early as 1991 when the then Inspector General of Police (IPS) Y R Dhuriya had sought from the government to amend the Recruitment Rules of the DySP post.
“In Goa, the RR of DySP notified ….. dated September 27, 1973 provide for 50 per cent promotion quota and 50 per cent direct recruitment quota. The Goa Police should also like to fall in line with the recommendations of the Gore Committee on Police Training in order to gradually reduce the percentage quota of direct recruitment to the minimum so as to have 100 per cent by promotion,” an extract from the letter, a copy of which is available with Herald, states.
The Gore Committee in 1974 had recommended that the promotion quota for appointment to the rank of DySP should be increased gradually and direct recruitment be discontinued in a time frame of five years.
The recommendations were fall out of the ground reality that various state police departments had directly recruited DySPs have to wait for 10 to 15 years for their promotion to the post of Superintendent of Police (SP). This was eventually blocking the promotion of several PIs waiting in line for their upgradation in the force.
Successive govts let down aspiring police officers
The consecutive State governments, which were privy to the feelings of the to-be promoted officers, have been amending direct recruitment quota percentage from time to time. The promotion and direct recruitment ratio was amended from 80:20 (in 1997) to 50:50 (2011) with fresh proposal to make it to 60:40 (July 2019).
“The amendments and proposals are being processed without taking all the concerned into confidence. The PIs are not happy with the proposal to modify the ratio to 60:40 because they want 100 per cent promotion, no direct recruitment. The senior PIs are not opposing for the sake of it or greediness but because they deserve it,” said an officer. “We want the concept back to 80:20 and gradually 100 per cent,” he added.
In 2006, the then SP Headquarter Arvind Gawas, now IPS serving as South SP, had also proposed that the government to do away with the direct recruitment stating, “It is proposed that section 5 of the Goa Police Service Rules, 1997 may suitably be amended to discontinue the direct recruitment of DySPs and the appointment of DySPs be made 100 per cent by promotion.” He too supported that promotion of existing officers would motivate them and help in raising the morale as well as efficiency of the sub-ordinate ranks.
The Goa Police department is thus going through a dicey situation where there is a pressure for resumption of direct recruitment, which has been stalled for last 21 years, and at the same time, the existing officers are already upset with the government for making them stagnate and for not promoting them for over the last three decades.
