Team Herald
PANJIM: The shuffle in the police department in view of Lok Sabha (LS) elections earlier this year has bcome a bone of contention amongst a disheartened group of police sub inspectors. As many as 100 Police Sub-Inspectors (PSIs) were deployed away from their home districts during the model code of conduct period. Out of these, around 21 were transferred in the same district while the transfer of another from a unit in North Goa to a police station in the South was cancelled, reportedly in violation of the election guidelines.
Five months after the results only few of those transferred have been sent back to their parent police stations/ units while the rest continue to serve at the place of posting, deployed during the election code.
What’s interesting is that the Police Establishment Board (PEB), in the post-election transfer list, has added 25 PSIs and LPSIs who were not among the 101 PSIs on poll-duty. This has upset some PSIs, who are still waiting to return to their previous place of posting.
“Transfers are a part of our service but when a set of policemen are relocated during the election period, the department should ensure deploying them back to their previous place of posting. In our case, only few have been lucky so far,” a PSI told Herald requesting anonymity on fear of facing disciplinary action.
Another PSI cited the guidelines of the Election Commission of India that directs State government to not allow any government official/officer connected with elections continue at the same place after the polls.
Sources said the department has been carrying out reshuffling in phased manner. Herald has an entire list of election transfers of February 22, 2019 as well as fresh transfers of PSIs on September 20, 2019.
Herald contacted Inspector General of Police (IGP) Jaspal Singh, who explained that transfers in one-go could create imbalance prompting the PEB to undertake the task step-by-step. “Transfers and posting are administrative matters. These are handled by PEB, a collective body. It is an ongoing process and not carried out together as it could create imbalance in the police functioning,” he added.
