The Punjab Cabinet on Tuesday has decided to place the Punjab Police (Amendment) Ordinance 2018 before the State Assembly for enactment in the forthcoming Budget session.This decision was taken during the Cabinet meeting held under the chairmanship of Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh here.The Ordinance, promulgated by the Governor on January 2, had replaced DIGs with IGs in the ranges as part of the government’s efforts to rationalise the police structure in the state.Under the provisions of the new Act, Section (4b) of the Act of 2007 would be substituted as “the officer of subordinate ranks of district police, armed police, intelligence, investigation and technical and support services shall form separate cadres. Seniority of each cadre shall be maintained at the State level. Transfer of a member of one cadre to another cadre shall not be allowed. However, the officer of subordinate rank working in special operation group may be transferred to district police after the successful completion of the fixed tenure in special operation group as specified by the Government. In case an officer of subordinate rank is rendered completely or partially disabled during operations or training, the period of fixed tenure can be relaxed by the Director General of Police for the purpose of transfer to district police.
The subordinate rank officer who opt for transfer to district police, if transferred, his seniority shall be placed at the bottom of the officers holding the same rank in the district police.”Section 9 would be substituted as “Each police range shall be headed by an officer of the rank of Inspector General of Police or Deputy Inspector General of Police who shall supervise the police administration of such range, and report to the Director General of Police directly or through any superior officer as and when posted”. Apart from this, in sub-section (1) of Section 15, for items 1 and 2, it shall be substituted as “Inspector General of Police or Deputy Inspector General of Police, as the case may be”. Similarly, in the principal Act, in sub-section (3) of Section 32, the words and sign ‘police zone’ or wherever occurring and ‘as the case may be’ and sub-section (4) shall be omitted.Sub-section (5) in Section 32 shall also be substituted as “The transfer and postings of officers of the subordinate ranks, within a police range, shall be made by the Inspector General of Police or Deputy Inspector General of Police of the ranges, as the case may be, on the recommendations of a Committee, comprising of the Senior Superintendents of Police of all the districts in that range.”Further, sub-section (1) and (2) of Section 36 shall be substituted by the words “the Deputy Inspector General of Police”, wherever occurring, the words “the Inspector General of Police or Deputy Inspector General of Police.”