Post IPS officers in accordance with cadre rules: Official

The senior DGP, in his letter, added that he may follow it up, if needed, with legal redress.

Cadre posts are those specified only for direct recruit IPS officers. But currently, 36 posts out of 76 are manned by officers in the rank of SP/ DC who are non-cadre officers.  This group constitutes 47 per cent.

Non-adherence to these legal requirements has heavily demoralised many IPS officers as their career planning has been thrown into complete disarray, the DGP noted.

 “It is mandatory to fill every cadre post by a cadre officer. However, there is provision for exception. A non-cadre officer may be posted at the cadre post if no suitable officer is available for filling the vacancy. And if the State proposes to continue to have a non-cadre officer at the post for more than three months, then a prior approval of the Union government has to be obtained,” he further pointed out in the letter.

The IPS officer further listed out the details of cadre posts which are manned by non-cadre officers. They are posts of SP in 15 districts – Ariyalur, Coimbatore, Cuddalore, Dharmapuri, Dindigul, Karur, Karur, Madurai, Namakkal, The Nilgiris, Pudukottai, Sivagangai, Thanjavur, Theni, Villupuram and Virudhunagar. Other posts are posts of DCs in Anna Nagar, T Nagar, IS, headquarters in Chennai, DC law & order, DC crime& traffic in Coimbatore, DC L&O, Salem and DC L&O in Tirunelveli.  AIG admin, AIG, HQ, Principal Police training college, SP, SBCID, SP SBCID security 1 & 2 and 7 post of commandants are cadre posts which are occupied by non-cadre officers.

When Tamil Nadu IPS Officers Association wrote a letter drawing the attention of the government on the matter a year ago, 41 out of 76 cadre posts in the State were in the hands of non-cadre officers.

It has been a practice of different political bosses in the governments to post locally experienced non-IPS officers as superintendents of police in districts, rather than not familiar English and Hindi speaking direct IPS officers, for smooth liaison.