Topic: IPS

There is no need of IPS presence in CAPFs is based on Following arguments. First, that IPS officers have no experience of cutting-edge leadership in these organisations at the company and battalion level. Second, the cadres of these CAPFs are now capable of leading them on their own. Third, these organisations have a primarily military character and, therefore, a civil service like the IPS has no useful role to play in them.

Another fact is that these forces have a large home-grown cadre of leaders, only a fraction of who is able to reach the supervisory levels. The rich operational experience of these officers gets wasted as most supervisory and all policy level positions are reserved for the IPS officers. Ab initio lack of avenues and further curtailment through constitutionally untenable reservation of higher posts for IPS is making these officers restive. Resentment and dissatisfaction is manifested in large number of voluntary retirements, and plethora of court cases relating to personnel matters.

The Officers who Have been served for 30–35 years in the CAPFs at various levels,They can vouch that the leadership provided by cadre officers is much better than Army, or IPS officers, given the intimate knowledge of men they command, ethos and operational philosophy of the CAPFs

IPS officers, who join not below the level of DIG, have no clue of what these forces are, what are their ethos and operational philosophy. Some of them are so ignorant that they seem to think that the difference between a 60mm mortar and an 81mm mortar is just that of 21mm. In fact, it took a lot of effort to dissuade an IPS inspector-general from recommending manpower reduction of 81mm mortar detachment while preparing restructuring proposals. Another officer, who is presently commanding one of the two theatres of the BSF, while on familiarisation visit prior to induction is said to have exclaimed where the Army was because he thought that it was the Army which was deployed ahead of BSF on borders.

One vacancy each in the BSF and the CRPF at level of additional DG is for the cadre officers, and at least 10 more officers are eligible at any given time to be promoted to that rank despite rules which impede rather than help their progression.

These additional DGs are ready to take over command any day and they will do a much better job of guiding these forces to face up to any challenge than the present IPS lot.

Lack of vision and depth of knowledge about these forces leads them to look for quick-fix solutions and populist orders which are detrimental to the discipline. So we had a DG of BSF who would issue on-the-spot orders for posting of whosoever stood up in his “sainik sammelan” and asked for a home posting.

There have been several instances of CAPF officers going to the court over issues of stagnation, discrimination and deprivation of financial and promotional benefits.

The contention of these officers had been that most of the promotional benefits at the highest level of the organisation are reserved for the IPS cadre even when the majority of them do not have field experience.

This also happens when the commissioned officers of the CAPFs are selected by the Union Public Service Commission despite the fact that most these IPS officers lack field experience.

It is found that most of them simply are one-exam wonders who happened to be lucky. Not all of them have the ability to lead and guide these forces and give value addition. The only saving grace is the dedication of cadre officers which keeps the momentum going.

IPS officers lack expertise in their own domain of policing and are unable to guide subordinates even in basic functions of policing and investigation. Numerous instances can be quoted starting from handling of the episode, , , murder,2G spectrum case. The public at large is given no importance with the focus mainly on political masters.

Their aim of coming to these armed forces is simply to avoid a political arrangement detrimental to their interests in states. Deputation to the Central Armed Forces under such circumstances provides them with opportunity to work in their home state with vast resources of these armed forces at their beck and call.

The argument that only about 50 IPS officers are on deputation to these forces is aimed at obfuscating the fact that these posts are all held at higher levels, thus depriving the cadre officers even of the limited avenues of progression.

As far as corruption is concerned, the less said the better. The case of an IPS officer utilising large number of personnel withdrawn from borders and other resources for the is of recent vintage. This must be granted that they operate with exceptional show of unity to protect their own in such cases even if they have personal differences.

Any Rule cannot override the constitutional right of cadre officers to be considered for the posts that the IPS have usurped in these specialised forces. That besides continued induction of IPS officers, who do not have training or domain knowledge of the functioning of these forces, is leading to serious compromise of national security and also dilution of policing standards.

It’s high time that the government reviews its policy of deputation of IPS to these forces as its continuation is a serious compromise with national security. The IPS officers are neither trained for specialised functions that these forces perform nor their short tenures of few years enables them to get an insight into their functioning.

All who commented here are from the two teams of which each party speak as if for the benefit of the society, which in fact is only for their own benefits in the hirarchy. No public is interested in your blame games and all.