Nagpur: The 146 officers, deployed in the guerrilla combat zone of Maoist-affected Gadchiroli district since August 2017, are yet to be relieved despite their much-awaited transfer orders being issued. With relievers yet to join, the officers have no choice but to sacrifice yet another Diwali away from family.
Though the top brass like SP, Addl SPs and DySPs have already moved in and out of the trouble-torn district through their routine transfers, the transfer process of field officers of the ranks of sub-inspectors, assistant inspectors and inspectors seems to have been neglected by the state police headquarters.
State home minister Anil Deshmukh too had said he would look into the matter.
Even after completing three years in the high-risk conflict zone, transfers of field officers were deferred six times before the orders materialized in the first week of November. Though pandemic was cited for the delay in transfers of the field officers, the process for senior officers was conducted at regular schedule.
Addl DG, establishment, Kulwant Kumar Sarangal said substitute officers have already been posted in Gadchiroli. “The officers are supposed to report immediately after their transfer order is issued and such instructions were given out. We will review in next couple of days to find out if there was any issue,” he said.
DIG, Naxal range, Sandip Patil said around 10 officers had reported a day ago and some were relieved from the district to places of new posting. “We believe that some officers are waiting for Diwali to get over before reporting for duty in the new posting. But, the process of joining and relieving is underway,” he said. “Relieving would take place in batches as we cannot leave a vacuum in the district,” said Patil, who had earlier worked here as SP.
It’s learnt that SP Ankit Goyal had already prepared a list of officers to be relieved. Around 29 police station and posts are headed by the officers of sub-inspector ranks, who are waiting to get relieved. It was reliably learnt that not many sub-inspectors have joined despite being transferred to the district.