Resentment is brewing among the officers of the State Police Services (SPS) cadre inducted into the elite Indian Police Services (IPS) cadre due to step-motherly treatment meted out to them by the government.

The officers of the cadre are agitated over getting a little share in the postings in zones, ranges and districts -- having just 16 posts in their share out of the total 101 direct operational posts besides the posts in four police commissionerates.

They also blamed the government for adopting dual policy of not giving operational posts to state cadre promoted officers during last year of their service before retirement and not following the same rule when it came to posting of IPS officers, including the key post of director general of police.

"Upgrading the posting in eight zones to ADG rank officers along with making four police commissioners also of ADG rank, the Yogi Adityanath government gave a clear indication that the chief minister had no trust on the officers of State Police Services as hardly one or two officers reached ADG rank at the time of retirement," said a very senior IPS officer who was inducted into the IPS cadre but kept has serving for several years on the side postings.

"The new policy adopted by the Yogi Adityanath government of not giving operational posting to State Police Services officers during their last year of service has proved to be last nail in the coffin for them, as out of the six of the 18 ranges where officers of their cadre were posted besides one DIG rank in Noida commissionerate, four of them were shunted out," the officer added while citing the recent shifting of IG Jhansi Range, SS Baghel, IG Bareilly Range, Rajesh Kumar Pandey, IG of Mirzapur Range, Piyush Srivastava, and DIG in Noida, Sripurna Ganguly. They all have been replaced by direct IPS officers, reducing the SPS share just to three in Prayagraj Range, Basti and Devipatan ranges.

Another officer of the State Police Services blamed the IPS officers and the government for deteriorating condition of the officers of PPS cadre promoted to IPS.

"Out of the total 75 districts (including four police commissionerateS), the state police services officers are posted in just a dozen districts that too in very small ones," claimed the officer while saying that in the recent transfers, the chief minister replaced direct officers on almost all the posts, shunting out the officers of state police services cadre.

Interestingly, on condition of anonymity, one of the officers even alleged that caste bias of the chief minister in giving operational postings had saved some `honour' for the officers of state cadre. "Three of the four IG/DIG rank officers of the state cadre posted in ranges besides one in Varanasi police commissionerate belong to Thakur community while out of the total officers of SPS posted in districts, half of them belongs to Thakur community and remaining represent all other castes," an officer said.

He said that state service officers inducted to IPS had had nowhere to go as the IPS Association did not raise their grievances while the office-bearers of the PPS cadre also did not raise their issues before the government. He said the time had come when the state services officers should form a separate association to raise their voice.