Bhopal: Lower pay, lesser promotional avenues, SPS officers get short shrift

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Lagging behind their counterparts in State Administrative Service (SAS) and State Financial Service (SFS) in terms of elevation to All-India services of their respective cadres, the officers of the State Police Service (SPS) have suffered another setback. About 70 SPS officers of five batches will not be able to enter coveted Indian Police Service (IPS) because of paucity of posts in IPS to be filled through promotions.

To add insult to injury, the state government has sanctioned a new grade pay of Rs 8,900 for SAS and SFS officers but the SPS officers have been left in the cold -  and this, when granting the new grade pay to the police officers would involve a financial burden of just Rs 25 lakh – Rs 30 lakh for the state government. Under MP Gazetted Officers Recruitment and Promotions Rules 2000, the officers of the three services are entitled to a grade pay of Rs 5,400 at the time of recruitment, Rs 6,600 on completion of six years of service (Senior Grade), Rs 7,600 when they have served for 10 years (Selection Grade) and of Rs 8,700 after 16 years of service (Senior Selection Grade). In 2012, the state government had sanctioned a grade pay of Rs 8,900 for SAS officers six years after they had joined Senior Selection Grade. However, 10 years down the line, this grade pay is yet to be sanctioned for SPS officers.

Not long back, SPS officers were elevated to IPS after eight years of service. Now, that period stretches to more than 25 years.   As on January 2023, the officers of 1996 batch of SPS have been promoted to the IPS. There are 109 officers in the five batches from 1997 to 2002 (there was no recruitment in 1999). Of them, 70 will not be able to join the IPS as they would have crossed the maximum age of 56 years. In comparison, SAS officer of 2001 batch have joined the IAS. The SPS cadre in the state comprises 1,269 officers. There are 319 sanctioned posts of IPS in the state of which 33 per cent, that is, 97 are filled by promotion. Against this, SAS has 739 officers while 439 posts of IAS are sanctioned for the state. This means that 132 posts are available for promotion as SAS officers.