Similar to the education department where teachers residing in the plains are strongly disinclined to take up posts in schools located in mountainous parts, policemen are found opposing tooth and nail any order to post them in the rough terrain of the hilly regions, shunting them thus, from the comfort of the plains. This is what has left the State police in an unenviable condition when it comes to keeping a balance between the hills and the plains in terms of postings of the law enforcers.
On condition of anonymity, a police officer said that the police officers, shorn of rapport with the political executives and bureaucrats, are being made to repair to the mountainous districts. They are most unlikely to get posted in the plain districts like Dehradun and Haridwar for the same reason — dearth of contacts with the power that be.
He further said the politically well-connected cops are sent to the mountainous districts by way of an eye-wash. In three/ four months, they return to the plain districts and there they are allowed to remain for a longer period. It is a common practice that like the teachers, the policemen and the officers approach their political mentors or bureaucrats to manage transfer orders back to the plains.
If sources are to be believed, the police officers, who were transferred to the mountainous districts a few years ago, were forced to remain posted there for a longer period than stipulated because the police officers saddled in the plains refused to swap postings with them. This was again because of their proximity to the influential politicians and bureaucrats.
However, with things assuming alarming proportions, police top brass has sat up to correct the long-enduring anomalies. State Director General of Police BS Sidhu said that they have decided that the police officers up to the rank of Deputy SP who always insist on getting field postings in the plain districts will have to work in the mountainous districts for at least six months. The police officers who are unwilling to get posted in mountainous parts will be sidelined in the plain districts. The instruction has come by way of an advisory. However, later on, they will be forcibly transferred in mountainous districts, he added.