Govt to induct 50 KPS officers into IPS
State government has cleared a proposal to induct at least 50 Kashmir Police Service Officers (KPS) into the Indian Police Service to address the demand of the local cadre police officers to promote them to higher ranks.
According to officials, the Home department has cleared a proposal to induct the KPS officers into the IPS after a court ruling recently that the state should fix the seniority of the KPS officers. The proposal to induct the KPS officers into the IPS is being considered by the Police and the orders are likely to be issued shortly.
The proposal to induct the KPS officers into IPS has been cleared weeks before the Cabinet Sub Committee (CSC) headed by Industries Minister, Chander Prakash Ganga, on Monday decided that the KPS officers should be given the higher salary benefits and the differences in the pay with the Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS) officers should be removed.
The CSC was constituted after differences between the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and BJP over the issue. Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, had earlier walked out of cabinet meeting as the BJP Ministers opposed the promotion of KPS officers to higher grades on the plea that the maximum slots would be cornered by the officers from Kashmir region. The issue will also come up for discussion in the cabinet meeting which is scheduled to be held today at the civil secretariat and will be chaired by CM herself.
The delay in induction of KPs officers into IPS, for years , had drawn ire of local police officials. A senior police official said that there was a wide discrepancy between the pay scales and promotional avenues of the police officers and those who get recruited under the Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS) category.
Officials further said that though the induction of the KPS officers into the IPS will clear the avenues of promotion, following the court ruling recently, the state cabinet will decide on the posts which will be reserved for the KPS officers. They point out that while a KPS officer of 1999 batch was getting the salary of around Rs 80,00 a KAS officer of the similar batch was getting over Rs 1 lakh salary. An official said that the cabinet needs to earmark the posts that could be given to the KPS officers.
The BJP is opposing reserving some key positions of Deputy Inspector General (DIG) and Inspector General of police (IGP) rank officers to the KPS cadre.
“A time bound grade pay fixation will help us get a hike in salaries, if the cabinet doesn’t make it mandatory that the pay hike will be given against clear vacancies,’’ said a senior police official.
KV Correspondent
