Govt tweaks retirement rules to ‘ re- hire’ able officers

Govt tweaks retirement rules to ‘ re- hire’ able officers By Aman Sharma in New Delhi THE CENTRAL government has come up with a novel way of extending the tenure of its favoured police officers. This September, the government rehired IPS officer Ajit Lal, chief of the joint intelligence committee, to continue on the same post on a year- long “ contract”. He retired from service on August 31. The home ministry now wants to repeat the same experiment with present CRPF chief K. Vijay Kumar. Call it a paucity of talent, the government has decided to work around its own rule that allows extensions of no more than three months to officers who retire from service. The home ministry has proposed to the Appointments Committee of Cabinet ( ACC) that CRPF chief Kumar, who retires on September 30, be “ re- hired on contract” to continue for another year. The department of personnel and training ( DoPT) has also backed the move and the ball is now in the Prime Minister’s court. The ACC, which is likely to take a call on this, may eventually end up denying the home ministry its wish. But surprisingly, no new panel has been drawn up by the home ministry for the CRPF chief’s position and things could turn difficult as there is no special director general serving in the CRPF right now as well. The home ministry’s case is that Kumar is dynamic and field- oriented and has transformed the CRPF in his nearly two- year long tenure and continuity in his leadership is needed to further the fight against the Maoists. Both former home minister P. Chidambaram and incumbent Sushil Kumar Shinde are believed to have backed the proposal of Kumar being re- hired on contract for at least another year. However, this arrangement is causing considerable heartburn among other senior IPS officers who would have been eligible to become the new CRPF chief on Kumar’s retirement. In fact, half- a- dozen plum posts for IPS officers are getting vacant in the next three months and hectic lobbying has begun among senior IPS officers for these high- profile jobs. By the end of December, the country is supposed to have a new chief of the CBI, Research and Analysis Wing ( RAW), Intelligence Bureau ( IB), CRPF and BSF. Given that Delhi Police commissioner Neeraj Kumar, ITBP chief Ranjit Sinha and National Investigation Agency ( NIA) chief S. C. Sinha are already in the running for becoming the new CBI chief, a sixth vacancy is almost certain to be created in any of the three posts held by these officers as well.