Deputy subedars, sergeants must serve in SOG for two years

BHUBANESWAR: The police headquarters has now made it mandatory for deputy subedars and sergeants to serve for minimum two years with special operation group (SOG), a specialized anti-extremist force of Odisha police, after recruitment. Such a directive comes amid reports of them avoiding posting in SOG owing to strenuous work schedule and the risk of life while carrying out operations in Maoist-hit regions.
Deputy subedars and sergeants are usually posted in battalions and district police reserves, respectively. They are not engaged in police stations for carrying out investigation or control crime. Since the government does not conduct direct recruitment for SOG, young personnel from civil police, special armed police and India reserve battalions are picked to serve in the elite anti-extremist force. Personnel beyond 35 years of age are not inducted into SOG.

In the February 26 order, copy of which is with TOI, the police headquarters clearly wrote that the deputy subedars and sergeants are not attending the anti-extremist training (AET) seriously and deliberately flunk or underperform in the AET examination in order to create a perception that they are not fit to work in SOG. “Those, who successfully complete the AET test, somehow manage to get posting in district reserves, battalions and other establishments of the police. They avoid the AET course on medical ground and also avoid the posting with SOG on medical ground if they successfully complete the training,” the order read.

Director general of police R P Sharma said the very purpose of creation of SOG will be defeated if such an attitude comes to fore from young personnel. “After careful consideration, I have ordered that the deputy subedars and sergeants shall be posted with SOG for not less than two years after passing the AET test,” Sharma told TOI. At present, there is no such directive for civil police personnel, who are recruited to work in police stations, either to get compulsory posting in SOG or in Maoist-hit districts for a specific period.

Keeping in view the Naxal menace in many districts, the state home department had on August 21, 2004 created SOG to deal with Maoists and heavily armed extremists or terrorists. The government had sanctioned creation of 543 posts for SOG. All newly recruited cops, be it of civil police or special armed police, undergo minimum three months of anti-extremist training at the SOG camp at Chandaka on city outskirts.