New Delhi: Home Minister Amit Shah has expressed serious concern over the ongoing tussle between officers of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and their IPS counterparts, and wants this hostility between the two services to end at the earliest.
During his maiden visit to the CRPF headquarters in the national capital earlier this week, Shah enquired from senior officers why so many representations regarding the standoff were coming to him, and why the issue is not being resolved amicably, said sources.
This was the first time that the minister addressed the issue.
Officers in the two government services have been embroiled in a months-long tussle over the issue of granting pay parity to CAPF officers with their IPS counterparts.
While the Supreme Court had ruled earlier this year that CAPF officers should be granted the status of Organised Group ‘A’ Services (OGAS), there has been severe confusion over the interpretation of this order.
The sources said CRPF director general R.R. Bhatnagar, an IPS officer himself, told Shah that the CAPF officers were misinterpreting the SC orders, and that disciplinary action is being contemplated against some of the officers who took their grievances to social media.
“The home minister categorically said that no disciplinary inquiry should be held against any of the officers,” a senior official serving in the CRPF said. “He (Shah) said that officers from the CAPF must be engaged in dialogue and the ongoing hostility must be stopped.”
Shah is also learnt to have said the legal counsel representing the government and the CAPFs should be brought on the table, if required, to discuss the issue and correctly interpret the top court ruling.
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What the tussle is about
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court ruled that Non-Functional Financial Upgradation (NFFU) be granted to the CAPFs in accordance with their OGAS status.
The NFFU refers to the process under which whenever an IAS officer gets empanelled at a particular rank at the Centre, his or her Group-A service counterpart also gets elevated to the same rank on a non-functional basis after two years, irrespective of whether actually promoted or not.
While the CAPF officers have been of the view that their service rules should be upgraded to reflect their new status, it has not happened so far. They also believe upgrade of their service rules would stop the deputation of IPS officers in their forces.
The SC clarified that the question of the end of deputation of IPS officers was not something they were examining. However, the CAPF officers believe it is only logical that once they are given the status of OGAS, their Recruitment Rules be upgraded to reflect the change.
The seemingly minor technicality has led to a full-fledged battle between the cadre officers of the CAPFs and IPS officers, with the former writing hundreds of letters to Home Minister Amit Shah and the home secretary, and taking to social media to draw attention to their grievances.
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