UP full of high-rank officers, but very few to do field work

The cadre review is conducted primarily for two reasons. Firstly, it shows whether the current strength is sufficient for the state and, secondly, it ensures functional utilisation of the officers.

While the cadre strength of 404 is considered inadequate for a large state like Uttar Pradesh, there are officers enjoying redundant posts at the senior level.

An officer said that the cadre review should aim at eliminating the redundancies and create new posts according to the actual requirement of policing a vast state. Secretary (Home) Mahesh Gupta said: “The state government had asked the DGP office to initiate the exercise. Let us receive the report.”

“The biggest distortion” in the cadre is at ADG level, said an officer. There are 37 ADGs against a sanctioned strength of 16. If one counts the six DG rank officers, it takes the number of senior officers to 43, which is over 10 per cent of the cadre strength.

Many of these officers were made ADGs just because their juniors were promoted. “They are squeezing the resources of the force as they have no business to perform at their place of postings,” said an IG-rank officer. He added that ADGs could not even be sent to the Centre on deputation because the Union Home Ministry had never empanelled them for the post of ADGs. “So the state is saddled with them,” he added.

The government has the power to make retirement compulsory for officers aged 50 or 55, if they are found unfit. “But will the government ever use these powers?” said another officer.

Another issue is the abolition of the posts of DIGs to remove an extra layer in the hierarchy. Many of the states have already undertaken the exercise to post IG-rank officers in police ranges. “We are also thinking of doing this in the ranges that have big cities like Kanpur and Allahabad. Then we can post an ADG-rank officer to head a zone,” an officer in the DGP office said.

Absence of career planning in the cadre is also a matter of concern. “The middle-level management is not very systematic in the state,” said an officer. Besides the postings in the District Executive Force, the police have several posts for IPS officers in its 18 establishments like Wireless, Telecom, CB-CID, Vigilance, Technical Services.