DGP clips wings of SSP, transfers power to AGMUT officers

The two posts are SSP (headquarters) which is currently with Manoj Kumar Meena, a 2012 batch AGMUT cadre IPS officer, and DIG (headquarters) Deepak Purohit, a 2007 batch AGMUT cadre officer.

IPS Manoj Kumar Meena was transferred from Chandigarh by MHA, but he is yet to be relieved by the UT administration.

Sources said that the powers of transfers of Inspector and below inspector rank personnel were also given to the IPS officers of AGMUT cadre.

Sources said, “There was a time when certain branches including the Police Establishment Board (PEB), E-1 and E-2 reported to SSP (UT), but formally these branches report to SSP (headquarters). The E-1 branch deals with the appointment of ASI rank cops and E-2 deals with the recruitment of constable rank personnel.”

According to the order, though the SSPs of the units concerned including SSP (UT), a post for Punjab cadre IPS officer, and SSP (traffic/security), a post for the Haryana cadre IPS, will deal the corruption/indiscipline related complaints against the cops working under them, they have to inform from time-to-time about the progress of probe against the cops to a centralised branch named DE, which works under DIG (UT), a post for the AGMUT cadre IPS officer.

The orders signed by DGP (UT) Praveen Ranjan on March 3 and circulated on March 7 states, “There is a need to lay down the various aspects of establishment matters in Chandigarh Police holistically and systematically. Currently, no comprehensive standing order exists on establishment matters in the Chandigarh Police, and the provisions are either not objectively defined or are spread over various orders….”

The order further reads, “This standing order supersedes previous orders dated May 2, 2013, and April 30, 2014, and all amendments made thereto.”

Order for streamlining many things: AGMUT officer

A senior IPS officer of AGMUT cadre said, “Through this order, we have streamlined many things. There were many orders, which made things confusing related to many matters. We studied all the previous orders, which were not standing orders, and converted those orders into the standing orders. The standing orders were issued as per the Punjab Police Rules.”

SSP (UT) or SSP (law and order)

There is no clarity about the designation of 2013 batch IPS Kanwardeep Kaur in Chandigarh. Insiders maintained that they are yet to see if she was given the charge of SSP (UT) or SSP (law and order) because the MHA order was silent on this aspect. The MHA order issued on March 7 merely stated Kanwardeep Kaur being transferred to Chandigarh from Punjab on inter-cadre deputation in AGMUT cadre.