14 HPS officers to get IPS rank soon

The Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC),with Chief Secretary Rajwant Sandhu,DGP D S Manhas and principal secretary (home) PC Dhiman as members besides the representatives of the UPSC,met in Delhi on Monday and cleared the names of the 14 officers for induction into the IPS.

“The case had been pending since 2006 because of some seniority disputes. Now,the DPC has finalised the names of persons eligible for induction into IPS cadre. A notification is expected after Diwali,” Manhas said in Shimla on Tuesday.

Among those whose names have been recommended are Daljit Thakur,RS Negi,BM Sharma,Puneeta Bhardwaj,Jagat Ram,Vinod K Dhawan,Kapil Sharma,RS Thakur,Balbir Singh,Prem Kumar,Santosh Patial,Chander Shekhar and Bimal Gupta. An officer,Yashbir Pathania,has exceeded the age bar for the IPS induction,sources said.

The Himachal Pradesh has been facing a shortage of the IPS officers in the mid-level ranks,especially SPs,as a large number of IPS officers are on central deputation. Also,the state did not get the required number of IPS officers for the past few years.

The state government can post the non-IPS officers in the districts as SPs. However,such officers can’t stay at the place of posting for more than six months unless permitted by the Centre. “Such IPS officers had to be posted as SPs owing to the shortage of the IPS officers,” Manhas said.

After a High Court order some of the HPS officers,including a few SPs were to be reverted back to their junior ranks but the government used an option to give promotions to those,who otherwise were their seniors but working at lower ranks.