Rollback of cop transfers exposes cracks in MVA govt

Thursdays transfers overturned by the home minister Anil Deshmukh, CM Uddhav Thackeray; section of Shiv Sena was unhappy with the decision: sources

Three days after Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh transferred 10 divisional commissioners, the state government and home minister's office revoked the order on Sunday. The decision comes after the top brass of Shiv Sena met Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and expressed their unhappiness over the transfers, asking him to intervene in the matter. Later, Joint Commissioner (admin) Naval Bajaj issued the stay order.

Even as the decision pointed at a rift in the government, Home Minister Anil Deshmukh took to twitter and issued his official statement which says, "The transfer orders issued by Mumbai police commissioner have been stayed by my and chief minister's office." The CP also met Thackeray at his residence to discuss the matter.

The home ministry falls under the ambit of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the Maha Vikas Aaghadi (MVA) tri-party government and the commissionerate has to keep the home minister in the loop of all the decisions it takes, especially police postings. A Shiv Sena source told mid-day, "Some senior leaders were not happy with the transfers. They met the chief minister at his residence and expressed their unhappiness. They even requested him to intervene in the matter." The source further said that following the discussion the CM stayed the order, and that he would also hold a meeting with the home minister soon.

A day before the transfer order was issued, Shiv Sena mouthpiece Samna published an editorial, which spoke about giving justice to officers from the Maharashtra State Police Services. It said how the north lobby of IPS officers always emerged stronger and the Marathi officers were ignored for DCP postings in the state.

The article further stated, "The north lobby is stronger and Marathi officers never indulge in lobbying and so they don't get good postings. When R R Patil was the home minister, he preferred divisional police commissioners from Maharashtra. He never listened to the commissioners and DGs and always preferred state officers." The article also spoke about how former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis also did not do justice to Marathi police officers. "When Fadnavis became the CM there was a lot of hope that Marathis will get justice but he too ignored them and preferred his Nagpur lobby," the article said.

Taking a dig at Thackeray, former BJP MP Kirit Somaiya said, "Did the Mumbai police commissioner issue the transfer order without consulting the home minister/DG/CMO? Thackeray Sarkar run by officials only?"

However, Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said, "There have been reports about lack of coordination and a tussle in the MVA government with regard to the transfers of divisional commissioners, but my office and the CMO have cancelled the order given by the CP. There is no problem in the government and we work together."

As per Thursday's order, IPS Paramjit Singh Dahiya (DCP Zone VII) was transferred to Zone I, IPS Pranaya Ashok (DCP Operations and Spokesperson) was transferred to Zone V and IPS Shahji Umap (DCP Detection) was transferred to Special Branch. Officers from State Police Services (SPS) Sangaram Singh Nishandar was transferred to Operations from Zone I, DCP Prashant Kadam was transferred to Zone VII from Protection and DCP Mohan Dahikar was given charge of Detection, Crime Branch and was relieved from Zone XI. Vishal Thakur was transferred to Zone XI after he was relieved from DCP Cyber, Rashmi Karandikar was transferred to Cyber from Port Zone and Ganesh Shinde was transferred from Special Branch to Port Zone. As per the fresh order, which has asked all the DCPs to continue with their current postings, only DCP Pranaya Ashok (Operations) has been given additional charge of Zone V as DCP Niyati Thackeray has joined Intelligence Bureau in Delhi and DCP N Ambika (Headquarters) has been given charge of Zone III as DCP Abhinash Kumar has been sent for Central Deputation.

(With inputs by Dharmendra Jore)

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