Kolkata: An IG-rank officer in West Bengal saw his postings changed thrice — in a span of 12 days — by the Mamata Banerjee government.
Between 6-18 February, Manoj Verma was first posted as the Inspector General (IG) of Counter Insurgency Force (CIF), under the West Bengal Police, then as the IG, CIF, with additional responsibilities as the additional commissioner of Kolkata Police and then again back to the first posting of IG, CIF.
The changes were made through three orders, dated 6, 15 and 18 February, the copies of which have been accessed by ThePrint. The last order stated that the 15 February order stood cancelled.
Before being posted as the IG, CIF, Verma held the position of Commissioner of Barrackpore Commissionerate in North 24 Parganas.
In a similar instance, posting of SP-ranked officer Ajeet Singh Yadav was also changed — twice in five days. On 10 February, Yadav, who is the Superintendent of Police (SP), CIF, was posted as the SP, STF. But in an order on 15 February, he was brought back to his previous position.
Between 6-18 February, the Banerjee government has reshuffled a total of 36 senior IPS officers through four orders.
There hasn’t been any official communication yet from the government on such back-and-forth.
ThePrint reached DGP Virendra and state Home Secretary H.K. Dwivedi through text messages for a comment on the matter, but there was no response till the publishing of this report.
With regard to Verma’s postings, retired and serving civil servants said an officer who gets any position under the West Bengal Police directorate cannot hold another position under the Kolkata Police.
They also said it’s “embarrassing” for a government to first issue an order and then change it.
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‘Highly unusual’
A retired senior civil servant, who didn’t want to be named, said it is “highly unusual to have an officer in both Bengal Police and Kolkata Police simultaneously”.
“Therefore, with the election announcement round the corner, realisation dawned on the government. Eventually, the distortion was corrected, otherwise the Election Commission would have taken action,” he said.
The West Bengal Police and Kolkata Police are two different sets of administrations. Kolkata Police is governed by its own legislation and it is an autonomous body, he added.
A serving civil servant termed the development “embarrassing” for the bureaucracy.
“One may remember, what happened two years back when the government was trying to appoint a new commissioner for Bidhannagar (Salt Lake). The CP was changed five times in five days.”
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