PANJIM: The wait for a full-fledged Director General of Police has ended with the Union Ministry of Home Affairs appointing 1989-batch IPS officer Mukesh Kumar Meena as Goa’s new police chief.
Currently posted at Mizoram, the AGMUT cadre officer has been asked to take charge with immediate effect. “With the approval of competent authority, Mukesh Kumar Meena is hereby transferred from Mizoram and posted as DGP, Goa with immediate effect and until further orders,” the MHA order of Friday states.
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Goa has remained without a DGP for seven months. Until Meena’s appointment, the post of police chief in Goa was lying vacant since November 2019, when DGP Pranab Nanda died of a cardiac arrest during an official visit to Delhi. Since then Inspector General of Police Jaspal Singh has been leading the force in the absence of a DGP.
Despite BJP being in power at the Centre and State, the Dr Pramod Sawant government failed to convince the Centre on the need to urgently fill in the vacuum and this had led to debate in the State.
The police department has been on its toes since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the country in March 2020. From ensuring adherence to strict lockdown in March-April to COVID-19 related duties and maintaining law and order, the police force has been carrying out its tasks without a DGP. Interestingly, sources said, IGP Singh was verbally instructed to take over as “officiating” DGP.
Against the backdrop of the sequence of events during this period, the government has come under severe criticism of the opposition. “While @DGP_Goa are busy on Corona duty, who will fulfill the regular policing activities? This was bound to happen in a State that has two deputy CMs (chief ministers) but no Director General of Police since several months now!” Independent MLA Rohan Khaunte had tweeted in the aftermath of the shootout at St Cruz last Saturday.
The State government had made a futile attempt to get a new DGP last year but failed to pursue the issue with MHA.
In December 2019 at a meeting of the Joint Cadre Authority (JCA) it was decided to appoint heads for the police force in Goa and then newly formed Ladakh UT. While the Ladakh police force did get a DGP, Goa was sidelined.
In other states, it is the chief minister who appoints a DGP, but in the case of Goa, which is a part of Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and union territories cadre, the MHA appoints the police chiefs.
When Herald spoke to police officers on the long delay in appointment, none were willing to speak, and most officers said it is the domain of the government. “We are doing our duty at our level best. Appointment of the DGP is with the ministry and the State government,” an officer had said seeking anonymity.
