In a statement, the government said the presidents and members of the executive committee of both IAS and IPS associations met Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh and said they had nothing to do with media reports. The government also sent to media organisations letters from both associations dissociating themselves.

The associations have taken diametrically positions on the police commissioner system, with the IPS officers demanding its introduction and the IAS officers opposing it as encroachment on their powers. Both have also used the occasion to vent their old and new grievances.

For instance, a meeting of the IPS association was held here on Feburary 18 which, while demanding introduction of the police commissioner system, criticised the recent government decision to post DIG rank officers as SSPs.

On February 24, the executive of the IAS Association met and opposed any move to introduce the police commissioner system. It also expressed unhappiness over arbitrary suspensions, denial of permission to organise IAS week for the last two years and posting of IPS officers against IAS cadre posts.

The president of the UP IAS Association, Vinod Mehotra, in a letter to Chief Secretary Atul Gupta, said newspaper reports of the executive meeting were at variance with what was actually discussed. He further said in future, only he will do the press briefing and correspondence with the government.