A parliamentary panel has recommended that the post of Director-General and other senior positions in Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) should not be reserved for Indian Police Service officers. The panel has suggested that the nature of duty of CAPF are more similar to that of the Armed Forces and it would make more sense to bring more officers from the Armed Forces on deputation. The panel, Committee headed by Congress leader P. Chidambaram, had sought to know from the home ministry Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) the rationale for a majority of the higher posts of the top hierarchy in the CAPFs being filled with officers coming on deputation, especially from the IPS.

MHA in its reply said that “exposure, training and grooming of an IPS officer matches with the job requirements for the senior posts of CAPFs.”

“The inter-departmental coordination between various CAPFS and State Police becomes smooth and seamless with the presence of IPS officers in every CAPF …therefore IPS officers are best suited to lead and provide supervisory directions to any CAPFs in an effective, efficient and impartial manner at these ranks,” MHA argued.

Currently, the DG rank in CAPFs like the CRPF, CISF, BSF, ITBP, SSB and NSG is “100% reserved for IPS officers.” Other positions — Additional DG, Inspector General and Deputy IG — are also mostly reserved for IPS officers.

“The Committee also recommends that the Government may re-examine the Rule 6 (1) of the IPS Cadre Rules, 1954 for fixing a limited percentage of deputation of IPS officers in the CAPFs keeping in view the interest of CAPF personnel…not more than 25% posts should be reserved for Officers coming on deputation, either from IPS or from the Armed forces, in any rank, and there should be no reservation of for the posts of DG in any CAPF and the officers of the CAPF cadres should be given equal opportunity to reach the topmost ranks. ….it will go a long way to boost the morale of the CAPFs but will also provide a bigger pool of qualified officers,” the report said.