Influential police inspectors of Patiala range kept in home towns during elections
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in News/ April 4,2024
As per available information, many influential Punjab police inspectors are still working in their home districts.
After the directions from election commission to transfer the officers “if he/she has completed three years in respective district, deputy inspector general Patiala range Harcharan Singh Bhullar had issued the transfer orders of NGOs from inspector to lower rank officials before the commencement of elections.
As per the orders issued on January 18,2024, 25 inspectors were transferred within Patiala range means 15 inspectors posted at Patiala were shifted to Sangrur,, Barnala, Malerkotla and those posted at Sangrur, Barnala, Malerkotla were shifted out of their home districts.
In this order, 22 inspectors -13 from Patiala, 5 from Sangrur, 3 from Barnala and 1 from Malerkotla were posted in their home districts, given some sideline, unimportant postings and not transferred as per EC guidelines.
The EC guidelines, issued before polls, say: “No officer connected directly with elections shall be allowed to continue in the home district. In a violation of rules, a number of police officers have been transferred to “cells which are not under the direct purview of the Election Commission”. Such transfers are often termed as “dummy” postings as these are not directly related to the poll process.
“It’s strange that officials who are well connected with politicians and remained SHOs for years are now adjusted on posts which are not under EC purview. They are surely going to help their political bosses in the upcoming elections’ said GS Walia a resident of Patiala.
When contacted the deputy inspector general of police (DIG) Patiala range Harcharan Singh Bhullar on why these 22 inspectors were not transferred out of their home districts despite clear guidelines of the election commission and given sideline postings and transferred them in cells which are not under the direct purview of the election commission, he said” these postings were done on the recommendations of the respective SSPs (Patiala, Sangrur, Barnala, Malerkotla). Their postings (these 22 inspectors) in the home district is already intimated to the election cell of the Punjab police, managed by a ADGP ranked officer. These postings were done keeping in view the guidelines of the election commission. They were posted in the district election cell to help the district police.”
Influential police inspectors of Patiala range kept in home towns during elections . When contacted M.F Farooqui, IPS, ADGP and State Police Nodal Officer(SPNO), for General Parliamentary Elections-2024 said” send me the details. After that we will look into it.”
