IPS recruitment should be taken out from UPSC quagmire: Ex-NPA director AP Durai

As a quagmire of controversy build up around top cops in various swathes of the country, former Director, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy, Hyderabad AP Durai has mooted a proposal to fork out IPS (Indian Police Service) recruitment from the combined Civil Service Examination.

In his autobiography 'Pursuit of law and order,' Mr Durai  who held various positions in the country’s top notch  security set-up said that youth,aged 20-24 years, be picked up for the service with mandatory physical tests to be conducted by Sports Authority of India (SAI); weight age for performance in sports, NCC etc; compulsory degree in law forensic Science /criminology / social sciences.

He has also batted for physical fitness checks every five years and tough standards prescribed for promotion to higher ranks as in the case of  defence  forces.

“ I am sure that such steps will impart a new character to the service and provide the environment for its members to develop a specialist /professional approach to their work and to take police service out of love for it and not continuing it as one of the alternatives if they do not make it to the IAS or central services”, Mr Durai  said.

Former DG of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) Mr Durai,sifting through his experience in the Police Academy and other slots,was candid to assert that IPS should be rescued from the  quagmire  of existing rules of UPSC by giving it a specialist character and the “aura of a professional  career”.

Mr Durai has elaborated the age limit factor and said he had observed a few candidates  in each batch  were in their late thirties .

“Such persons would be forty of age when they completed their physical training and were posted at ASPs though the police service demand physical and mental agility and a risk taking capacity.

Mr Durai, who was posted in the Academy in mid nineties, said he  had broached the subject with the Home Ministry which then referred the matter to the Department of Personnel who had convened a meeting of all heads of training academies of different services. Mr Durai made a point in the meeting that IPS demanded a careful  approach and the age limit could be different from that of other services.

The meeting could not lead to the executive decision ,so he had had taken up the issue with then Minister of state for personnel Margaret Alva for discussions with then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao.

“ Mr Durai ,I do not think your suggestion will be accepted by the government . The PM ( Rao)  has ruled it out as it has political implications”, was the crisp reply of Ms. Alva to Mr Durai after her meeting with then PM.

Proponent of the reforms in the IPS , Mr Durai recalled his role in scrapping the sandwich pattern of IPs training in the NPA to pave way for return to basic  training in one stretch.

The Sandwich pattern in practice earlier had mandated an opportunity for probationers to have their practical training in the districts and then come back to the second phase of training in the NPA. Thus their training in the NPA has been divided into two equal parts  . But the system ,the book said, did not take into account the reality that the trainees were not same when they returned from their practical training . Having being treated as ASPs ,and having tested the respect and privileges accorded by the force to IPS officers, they were not able to undergo the drill and marching , thus faculty lose their control on probationers.

In 1995, the Home Ministry expressed keenness to revise the training schedule to include two to three months attachments to the CRPF and BSF to expose them to operational rigors in disturbed areas.  There were two reasons : young IPS officers were not keen to be commandants during their deputation in BSF or CRPF and secondly ,many of them would take up  leadership position in central police organizations without any exposure to field operations.
The problem was how to fit in the additional period of two or three months required for such an attachment.

Mr Durai  said as NPA Director , he told the Home Ministry that the academy will complete the basic training in ten months then they can go to training in states for two months  as before. On completing they would go for attachment to the central Para Military forces. They would only get back to the NPA for debriefing for a week  and then go states for regular postings.
The Home Ministry agreed to the proposal and disjointed sandwich pattern of training thus came to an end.