MUMBAI: For more than 100 senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officers of Maharashtra, including Director General of Police PS Pasricha, all roads will lead to Nagpur on January 24.
Their business? Officially, they will be there to review the law and order situation in the state. Unofficially, after attending this review meeting from 10 am to 12.30 pm, they will be marking their presence at the wedding reception of state additional chief secretary Chitkala Zutshi’s daughter the same day.
The official review meeting is scheduled to be held at the conference hall of Ravi Bhavan, a PWD guest house. According to an official communication, Maharashtra deputy chief minister and home minister RR Patil was also expected to attend the meeting from 12.30 pm to 1 pm and join the officers for lunch at 1 pm. However, sources close to Patil have hinted that he may skip both the ‘review meeting’ and the reception.
Zutshi’s daughter Devanjali is marrying Ripon Tikkus of Srinagar. The wedding reception is scheduled to be held at the lawns of the Officers’ Club, the biggest in Nagpur, bang opposite ‘Ramgiri’, the official bungalow of the Maharashtra chief minister when he is in Nagpur.
Of those 100 IPS officials attending the review, the top 20 might be staying at the Police Gymkhana, Nagpur, while 20 others may prefer Ravi Bhavan. However, the majority of them could be staying in posh hotels in the city.
These officers will certainly be paying for the gifts they may bring for their bureaucratic boss’s daughter, but they don’t have to pay anything for their journey to and fro from Mumbai and other cities in Maharashtra.
“They can claim travelling allowance (TA) and dearness allowance (DA) if an official meeting is convened,” a senior IPS official from the director general’s office told DNA.
“It is obvious that the said meeting is nothing but an ‘official excuse’ for all the senior IPS officers to attend the wedding and reception of the daughter of the additional chief secretary (home),” alleged a very senior IPS officer who has received an invite for the reception but might not be attending the same.
