Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb in a reply to Opposition Leader Manik Sarkar’s letter on various issues dwelt extensively on the BJP-IPFT government’s stand on them and sought to clarify the points that Sarkar had raised.
The Chief Minister, however, minced no words to refer to some of the glaring ‘failures’ of the then Left Front government headed by Manik Sarkar.
The Chief Minister replied to Sarkar that ‘the entire process of appointment of DGP is being done in an absolutely legal and transparent manner’, and also pointed out that “……K.T.D. Singh was appointed as DGP on 17.04-1999 when he was having service of only 25 years. Additionally, Sri K. Nagaraj was illegally given two adhoc promotions to become DGP despite chargesheet in corruption case and Government of India unambiguously clarifying that ad-hoc promotion is not allowed as per guidelines. His promotion as DGP had to be cancelled as the same was not as per rules.”
“I am pained to see that you have forgotten action taken by the government when you were at the helms of affair. If appointment of Shri KTD Singh with 25 years of service can be right and when Shri K Nagaraj facing criminal and Departmental charge-sheet can be illegally elevated as DGP, how appointment of DGP after observance of due process can be wrong?”, said Deb.
Referring to Sarkar’s point of view on Prosecution Directorate, the Chief Minister said, “……the Prosecution Directorate was established as per provisions of CrPC 25A in 2007 with one post of Director and two posts of Deputy Directors”.
“However, after three years in 2010, only one Post of Dy. Director was filled up. The posts of Director and another Dy. Director remained vacant from 2010 onwards. This Directorate has not produced any significant outcome for the objectives for which it was created. Moreover, Rs. 84 Lakhs was spent on salary and non-salary between 2010 and March 2018 without any significant result”, Deb said.
He continued, “There is no decision of the Government to disband this Directorate. The allegation of annulment of this Directorate is totally baseless and based on false rumours. On the contrary, the Government is trying to revamp the Directorate so that it is able to perform its tasks effectively…..”.
“You are clearly overlooking failures of your own period when this Directorate was rendered totally ineffective and huge wasteful expenditure was made without much result….”, Deb replied to the Opposition leader.
In his clarification on appointment of Special Police Officer raised by Sarkar, the Chief Minister added, “…….the provision for Special Police Officer was made in the Tripura Police Act, 2007 by previous regime. The Government of India supports 1400 SPOs under security related expenditure. Under the Tripura Police Act, SPOs have the same powers, privileges and protection and is liable to perform same duties as an ordinary police officer. When the police force ordinarily employed in any area is not sufficient to deal with a situation threatening peace and security, the SPOs are appointed. They perform significant role in supplementing the efforts of civil police in ensuring security of communities at field level.
The State Government has also decided to use 398 of them as driver because they have the driving licenses and requisite skills. They will also be paid higher wage of Rs. 9000per month for their skilled Job. This clearly indicates that the State Government is keen to utilize the SPOs in an effective manner.”
The Chief Minster also wrote that the recent decision to appoint additional 1100 SPOs is based on assessed needs so that they help the police set up at field level in ensuring peace and security. “This will also provide Jobs to unemployed youths who need to be taken care at this point of time….. Several States had to resort to cut in the salaries of their employees and many states had to defer the payment of salary. In this situation … Tripura has been able to create avenues for employment despite all financial constraints,” Deb stated.
“It is also not true that no steps are being made to fill up the vacancies of civil police and TSR. State Government has taken necessary steps to fill up the 75 vacant post of Sub Inspector of Police (AB & UB). Matter has been referred to TPSC for selection of Sub Inspectors of Police. Moreover, the State Government has also created 2014 posts of various nomenclatures for raising of 2 TSR Battalions. At present, out of 2014 posts, process is going on for filling up of 1350 posts of Rifleman (GD) and 138 posts of Rifleman (Tradesman) through direct recruitment. Moreover, when these SPOs will get deployed, large no. of civil police constables will get freed for duties of maintenance of law and order,” he added.
At the conclusion part, the Chief Minister in his reply to Sarkar said, “….I have no hesitation in saying that the allegations made in your letter are totally baseless and unfounded. You appear to have made assertions based on concocted news items without ascertaining the facts.”
