Punjab babus sulk as Badal imports DGP from Kashmir

After getting two IAS officers, KJS Cheema and Sukhbir S Sandhu, from outside the state, Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal’s decision to induct 1974-batch IPS officer PS Gill from J&K as the new Punjab DGP has left state bureaucrats sulking.

Both Cheema and Sandhu, on deputation from Bengal and Uttaranchal, have been working as special secretaries to the chief minister. The state sought special permission from the Centre for inducting Gill as DGP. The Punjab Police Act was amended to make provision for appointing an officer from outside the state as police chief. Gill will succeed KK Attri, who retires on June 30. In the process he will supersede three DG-rank officers in Punjab — AP Pandey, RS Gill and Anil Kaushik.

Incidentally, RS Gill, posted as director of the Punjab Police Academy, happens to be the elder brother of PS Gill and had earlier held the office of the DGP briefly in 2007.

The development has upset senior IPS officers who have taken it as an “aspersion on their credentials”.

“We have spent our career in Punjab dealing with various shades of law and order problems, including the decade-long militancy. Yet we have a rank outsider, whose only credentials are his proximity to the Badal family, to head the force,” said a top police officer. He said this would set an unhealthy precedent in Punjab.

“There is no exceptional situation in the state that warrants induction of officers from outside,” said a senior IAS officer. It was fair enough to call back people like KPS Gill from Assam at the height of militancy. “But getting an officer from outside during peaceful times demonstrates the chief minister’s lack of faith and confidence in the officers of the state,” he said.

PS Gill’s induction as Punjab DGP was likely to block promotion of four IPS officers of 1977 batch — Shashi Kant, Chander Shekhar, JP Birdi and Jyoti Trehan — to the rank of DG. The state had cleared their promotion to DG rank only last month.