Chandigarh, October 10
In a significant development, the Punjab Government tonight decided to redesignate Dr
A. A. Siddique, Additional Director-General of Police, as Officer on Special Duty and Order) by putting the entire law and order machinery of the state under his command.
Dr Siddique, who was prematurely recalled from inter-state deputation from Manipur, where he was Director-General of Police, would now report directly to the Chief Minister with regard to maintenance of law and order.
All Senior Superintendents of Police, Deputy Inspectors-General of Police (Ranges) and Inspectors-General of Police (Zonal) would report directly to Dr Siddique.
The step may
denigrate the role of the Director-General of Police. Until now, he was the overall supervisory officer for the law and order machinery as well. Until today, Dr Siddique was also reporting to the Director-General of Police, Mr M.S. Bhullar.
Interestingly, the OSD (Law and Order) will also write annual
confidential reports of SSPs, DIGs (Ranges) and IGs (Zonal) with regard to their performance on the law and order front.
When contacted, Dr Siddique said he had not received any order about his new assignment. “May be, if there are any orders, I will get them in the office tomorrow,” he added.
At one stage, it was argued that Dr
Siddique, an IPS officer of the 1968 batch, would be elevated and appointed Director-General of Police as he was holding this position in Manipur. Since the Government had to promote at least three more officers before elevating Dr Siddique, it was decided to look for a viable alternative.
The decision to designate him as OSD (Law and Order) under the Chief Minister was perhaps the best possible alternative available, sources in the government said.
There may be some heartburning as the Director-General of Police will be reduced to a “mere rubber stamp head” of the force with law and order being taken away from his purview.
Though the copies of the order (1/71/2002/3H-1/2463) were not immediately available, it is understood that certain important wings of the police, including Intelligence, would also report to the OSD (Law and Order).
At present, Punjab has four DGPs ( Mr Sarabjit Singh — on leave; Mr Jarnail Singh Chahal, Mr M.S. Bhullar and Mr S.V. Singh) and 16 ADGPs.
