Srinagar, July 22: The question whether police officers are “evading” sensitive postings in view of the prevailing situation in Kashmir seems to have stirred a hornet’s nest, with the local police officials accusing the IPS cadre of fleeing the Valley in turbulent times.
While the IPS officers blame the government for “deliberately marginalizing” them, the grouse  of the KPS officers is that the IPS officers have either proceeded on leave or have preferred central deputations allegedly to stay aloof from the sensitive postings involving public dealing in view of the prevailing unrest in the Valley.
According to sources, the IPS officers don’t want to face the law and order situations for several reasons, a charge refuted by them. “In 1990s, the IPS officers would prefer district postings as they were not directly involved in dealing with the situation and the army and security forces were on the forefront of the anti-militancy operations. This time the situation is entirely different. The police officers have to deal with peculiar law and order situation involving general masses. And most of the IPS officers don’t want to face situations involving public unrest. As they know that if the things worsen, they may have to face the music,” a group of KPS officers told Greater Kashmir.
They said that given the enormity of the situation, most of the IPS officers don’t want to fish in the troubled waters and instead either try to go on central deputation or opt for soft and low profile postings involving least public dealing.
Sources said at least a dozen police officers, of different ranks, have already either proceeded on central deputation or have applied for the same. At the Inspector-General level, the officers include SK Misra, SP Vaid, SM Sahai while at the Deputy Inspector General level, the officers are Mukesh Kumar and Naveen Agarwal.
Sources said at the level of Senior Superintendent of Police, the officers who have gone on central deputation include Nitish Kumar, S P Panni, Viplaw Kumar and Hukum Chand.
Highly placed sources said the recently appointed Special Inspector General, North Kashmir, Panjak Saxena, has also applied for the central deputation. The union cabinet secretariat, sources said, has cleared Saxena for deputation to Research Analysis Wing (RAW).
Curiously, while during militancy, almost all the sensitive districts in the Valley were manned by the IPS officers, presently only two police districts – Kupwara and Kulgam are headed by the IPS officers while all other districts are manned by KPS officers.
Sources said, many of the police officers from the IPS cadre have preferred soft postings in the Vigilance, Crime or Traffic Departments to ‘avoid public dealings’.
Many police officers, according to sources, have proceeded on leave for varied reasons during the past one month.
“Whether it was during the Amarnath land row or the prevailing unrest, the IPS officers have always avoided sensitive postings during such crisis situations and it is always the KPS officers who have to do the unpleasant job,” said the aggrieved KPS officers.
When contacted, the Director General of Police, Kuldeep Khoda, didn’t pick up the phone. He did not respond even to repeated requests conveyed through his office.
However a senior police officer said 10 percent of the officers in a cadre had to be on deputation as per the rules. “This time it will be less than that,” he said. “Their deputation won’t have any impact on the law and order situation. There are sufficient officers available to deal with the prevailing crisis.”

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