By Mayabhushan Nagvenkar Panaji, May 30 - Some months back, an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer just back from his probation and started scouting around for an official car.
His choice, turned out to be a robust Chevrolet Tavera, which was being used by a Goa Police service (GPS) Superintendent of Police (SP). Most GPS officers in Goa then were allotted the Toyota Qualis for official use. This state cadre officer however was an exception to the norm in those times and drove around in the Tavera, which he refused to part, so that the IPS officer could park his butt in it. The friction between these two officials reached epic proportions, until the GPS man was recently shunted away to maintain a discreet vigil on the shrubbery at Raj Bhavan. Point being made here, is that intense rivalry between IPS and GPS officials may yet be both, the best and the worst things to have happened to policing in Goa. The bad first. In course of covering the police head quarters in Panaji, reporters are often perplexed about the operational status of the director general of police Bhim Sain Bassi, allegedly (sic) the top cop in the state. Here's one incident of some time ago, which helps put the perplexity in context. Some time back, SP (CID) Atmaram Deshpande, who was appointed public relations officer of the police department, openly defied the orders of the DGP Bassi, when the latter asked him to address queries from the media. This could be accepted grudgingly as an all-in-a-days-work' philosophy at any public works division (PWD) office, but not in a disciplined force, when top-down orders are rarely disobeyed. Then there was another shocking instance, when a DySP ranked officer refused to raid the residence of his fellow state cadre SP's kin, despite explicit instructions from the deputy inspector general Ravinder Singh Yadav, resulting in the delay in the arrest of Atala and the subsequent busting of the police-drug mafia nexus. Such incidents raise grave doubts about the control of the IPS officers -- including the director general of police on the rest of the GPS officers, whose source of power appears to stem from politicians in power, rather than their uniformed superiors. So what's the silver lining on the horizon, hinted at earlier? The GPS-IPS rivalry has managed to upset several 'settings' (colloquially said) put in place by the GPS officers, who more or less are in charge of the most sensitive postings presently. Here's one illustration. The arrest of dreaded drug dealer Bhui -- who was close to a few GPS and several local police officers, by the ANC (headed by an IPS officer) was a sign that somewhere an established nexus between policemen and the drug dealers was shaken a bit. Local nexuses with politicians and the anti-social elements, honed to a nicety by the local GPS officers over a period of time is not the only issue. Absence of plain and simple professional policing quality is also a significant factor with most of the current set of GPS officers. Here's what BJP MP Shripad Naik has to say. "They should post IPS officers in these posts (district SPs and Crime). Their experience will certainly help to tackle the issue. Day by day the crime situation in Goa is worsening," the former state BJP president said. Shripad Naik, who is also known for rather simplistic assessment of complex situations, is not the only one who has voiced concern about the issue of GPS officers serving in key positions like that of the district SP and SP (Crime), where IPS officers ought to serve conventionally. Super cop Julio Ribeiro in his report on the assessment of the Goa police some years back has categorically said that the direct induction of these DySPs (since promoted to SPs) had potential to create a lot of dissent in the hierarchy. Ribeiro had also slammed the Goa government for gross mismanagement of its cadre. Both the police top brass and the state administration have routinely denied allegations of a rift, when they were contacted for comment in the past. Srivastava however added a cryptic rejoinder. "But I am not the government. The minister takes the final decision," Srivastava said. There are presently five AGMUT cadre IPS officers in Goa, and nearly a dozen GPS cadre SP (courtesy digitalgoa.com)
