Top cops in armed reserve camps seek integration of posts

A total of 84 police personnel, including two commandants, six deputy commandants, 42 assistant commandants and 34 reserve inspectors, who have been posted in various district armed reserve camps in the state, were being superceded by the personnel from the local police.

One of the aggrieved persons, Kallekad Surendran, deputy commandant of the armed reserve camp, in a memorandum to Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, has demanded that the date of seniority be fixed as per the advice memo issued by the Public Service Commission. For the past 10 years, the assistant and deputy commandants were remaining in the same posts since the officers above the rank of sub-inspectors were not posted to the local police.

Earlier, there was a practice of conferring IPS to the officers posted in the armed reserve camps, but this was done away with in 2000.

Among those officers in the armed reserve camps who were conferred IPS before 2000 include Inspector General (Thrissur Range) S Gopinath, who had served as superintendent in five districts, police commissioner and Inspector General (administration), and present IG (Kannur Range) Jose George, who was earlier the Crime Branch IG and director of the Kerala Police Academy. As per the government order No 268/2010, the Kerala civil police cadre was created after integrating the district armed reserve and the local police (general executive branch). Subsequently, the personnel in the local and armed reserve camps up to the rank of sub-inspector were integrated.

The then Director General of Police had on March 25, 2010, stated that the proposal to integrate the posts above the rank of the sub-inspector will be sent to the government. But, the DGP has not sent it so far.

Therefore, the 84 personnel above the rank of sub-inspector and commandant have called on the government to complete the integration process soon so that the constitution of the Kerala civil police is completed.

It was pointed out that a sub-inspector who completed his training after joining in 1984 and joined the armed reserve, is now a deputy commandant, while a person who joined as sub-inspector in the local police has become a superintendent several years ago.