The future of senior Alok Raj from DGP is in discussion.
– Photo: Amar Ujala
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The state government has broken the tradition regarding appointment to the most powerful post in the police department, which has created a critical situation. Rajwinder Singh Bhatti, a 1990 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, was made the Director General of Police and Alok Raj, a 1989 batch IPS officer, remained on the sidelines. This is where the trouble started. Now the trouble with IPS Alok Raj is that he has to report to the DGP in the position he is in now. Means, have to report to the junior batch officer. If he doesn’t want to do that, he will have to follow the path of central deputation. Well, the state government has a choice. The alternative is to transfer senior IPS officer Alok Raj to a post which is not under the DGP. According to the rules, it is the only post on which the batch above DGP has been going under the tradition. This was the hot topic of discussion among all the police officers gathered in Patna for the meeting with the new DGP on Wednesday.
Three posts of DG equivalent to DGP, but only one option
In Bihar, three posts of DG are considered equivalent to the Director General of Police, although according to rules and tradition, there is only one post, DG – Home Guard and Fire Services. By the way, two more options can be considered. 1. DG- Civil Defense and 2. DG- Police Building. Till now, more people who have been senior in batch from DGP have been appointed on the DG of Home Guard and Fire Services. Ashish Ranjan Sinha, R. Of. IPS officers like Mishra, Abhyanand were made to sit here when a lower officer became the DGP. Shobha Ahotkar is currently holding this post. Shobha Ahotkar belongs to the batch of DGP Bhatti, but she is young and her retirement date is ahead. In such a situation, the government can give Shobha Ahotkar the post of DGP’s subordinate and Alok Raj of 1989 batch can give the post of DGP’s equivalent DG – Home Guard and Fire Services. The second post is of DG- Civil Defence. The post is filled against non alternative position. Arvind Pandey, a 1988 batch IPS officer, who had dropped out of the DGP race last time due to government displeasure, is holding this post this time. Senior batch people from him are on central deputation and right after him Sanjeev Kumar Singhal has retired as DGP. According to the rules, he has first right on the post of DG Home Guard and Fire Services. In such a situation, if Arvind Pandey continues on his post, then according to the preference of IPS, Alok Raj should get the opportunity. The third post is that of DG-Police Building, on which Alok Raj has already lived. By the way, years ago appointments were also made on DG-Vigilance, a post equivalent to DGP. Over the years, only ADG rank officers have been posted on this post.
It is a tough decision to remove Shobha Ahotkar from an important post.
Shobha Ahotkar of 1990 batch is on the post of DG of Home Guard and Fire Services since December 2020. She continued to work as a counterpart to former DGP Sanjeev Kumar Singhal of 1988 batch and now continues in his counterpart with new batchmate DPG. The way the state government has sidelined Alok Raj, the only IPS officer of Bihari origin for the post of DGP, and made his junior as DGP, there is little chance that Ahotkar will be removed from the current post. Removing Ahotkar would be a big decision as well as a tough one. In such a situation, there will be only two options for Alok Raj, who is in the DGP race – one is to report to junior batch IPS and the other way is to try for central deputation. No officer himself is ready to say anything about this, but on Wednesday, when the DGP was holding a meeting of police officers from all over Bihar in Patna, this was the center of discussion.
