Appointment of ASPs at police stations not now
The Police Headquarters yesterday postponed its decision to directly appoint BCS (Bangladesh Civil Service) cadres as officers-in-charge of police stations instead of the inspectors and sub-inspectors.
The decision was taken at a meeting at the Police Headquarters in the afternoon following resentment brewed up among the inspectors and sub-inspectors over the previous decision, sources present at the meeting said.
Contacted, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Nur Mohammad, who chaired the meeting, admitted the postponement of the decision, but declined to elaborate further.
Earlier on Tuesday, he defended the move to appoint BCS cadres as OCs saying it would improve service and quality of investigations, and lessen the workload of the field-level policemen.
"Those who are corrupt and have vested interests are opposing the changes," the IGP said.
However, the meeting yesterday also decided to expedite the process of appointing two inspectors in each police station instead of a single one.
"The meeting prioritised doubling the number of inspectors in each police station. The process of appointing the BCS cadres as the OCs will begin at a later stage," Assistant Inspector General (AIG-Recruitment and Management) Atiqul Islam told The Daily Star.
He also said the process to appoint two inspectors will begin within a month and some 550 sub-inspectors will be promoted to inspectors very soon as part of the process.
The government earlier this month decided to appoint assistant superintendents of police (ASP) and assistant commissioners (AC) as the heads of some 600 police stations in the country.
The decision to appoint two inspectors in each police station has been taken so that one can monitor crime and operations while the other, investigations. The ASPs or ACs will oversee their work.
As per the existing rules, the inspectors and sub-inspectors (SI) are made OCs while 37 percent of the ASPs or ACs are appointed through promotion from lower ranks.
The move to upgrade the post of OC upset the lower rank police officers because they feel the decision would block their chances of moving up to class-I positions and thus undermine their morale, said sources in the police seeking anonymity.
The Daily Star on Monday received anonymous fax messages opposing the decision.
The government claims that the measures would make around 1.24 lakh policemen in the country more efficient in dealing with crimes, investigations and maintaining law and order.
Bangladesh Police now have 561 ACs and ASPs in and outside metropolitan cities with nearly 1,850 inspectors and 8,775 sub-inspectors.
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