HVK Archives: Assam ill-equipped to fight militancy
Assam ill-equipped to fight militancy - The Indian Express
Samudra Gupta Kashyap
()
29 June 1997
Title: Assam ill-equipped to fight militancy
Sub-Title : Large number of officers are on deputation outside the State
Author: Samudra Gupta Kashyap
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: June 29, 1997
Besides the fact that militancy is still to be brought under control, there
is one more reason the Army may not be withdrawn just yet from Assam: the
state's heavily short-staffed police force, which is in no position to
carry on the battle.
While about seven senior IPS officers deployed with it are currently under
suspension, a large number of its own cadre are on deputation to the
Central Government and other organisations.
The list of suspended officers begins with the state Director General of
Police, Ranju Das. A fairly senior officer in the all-India list, he had
fled Assam as the Congress was being voted out of power in the 1996
Assembly elections. The then chief secretary, Arunodoy Bhattacharya (IAS),
Deputy Inspector General of Police, Ashim Kumar Roy (IPS) and Secretary
(Personnel), Niranjan Ghosh (IAS), had also fled along with him. AD were
placed under suspension. Other senior IPS officers currently under
suspension include IGP Ashok Kumar Sahu, and four superintendents of police
(SPs), Rajendra Awasthi, A K Sinha Casshyap, B K Mishra and Kuladhar
Saikia. Of these, Sahu was suspended earlier this month for reportedly
being too vocal and outspoken against the Government. He was said to have
specially earned the authorities' ire for expediting the case against an
IPS officer who had allegedly raped a constable's wife.
Awasthi, SP of Golaghat district, and Sinha Casshyap, SP of Bongaigaon,
were accused of having had a hand in custodial deaths, while Mishra, the
then commandant of an Assam Police battalion, was charged with raping a
constable's wife. Saikia, the SP of Guwahati city, got the suspension
orders following the attempted ULFA bomb attack on Mahanta in the heart of
the state capital on June 8.
To make matters worse, a large number of IPS officers of the Assam cadre
are on deputation outside the state.
The situation has reached such a stage that the problem is said to have
reached even the ears of Union Home Minister Indrajit Gupta's ears, who has
reportedly asked the state government to reinstate Das and Roy, who had
fled their posts following Mahanta's return to power. Incidentally, more
than a year after the two did the disappearing act, the state Government is
yet to frame even chargesheets against them.
However, there are rumours that Das and Roy, who were considered very close
to late chief minister Hiteshwar Saikia, might decline to return to Assam
and choose deputational posts elsewhere. As it is, there is a lot of
resentment in Assam against them and chief secretary Bhattacharya for their
defection of 1996.
There is also the traditional rivalry among the services. With the IPS
officers in short supply, the Assam Government has filled up posts from the
state service cadre. But the former's claim that the quality of policing
had gone down in the state due to their own absence has not gone down well
with Assam Police Service officers.
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