BJP justifies its opposition to police agenda issue in cabinet

Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh today justified BJP's opposition to police service restructuring which had prompted Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to leave a Cabinet meeting midway.
"This agenda came up at the end of the meeting. We sought for a deferral so that it can be studied as the matter pertains to police," Singh told reporters here.
Mehbooba had yesterday left the Cabinet meeting midway after a rift with a BJP minister over her proposal to restructure Kashmir Police Service (KPS) officers' cadre.
BJP ministers said the posts of IGs and DIGs should be created after promotion to and inductions into IPS.

"It was a minor issue. They wanted to do it. Our take was simple that it is a DoPT issue, posts cannot be given without induction into IPS," Singh said.
BJP is not opposed to financial and monetary benefits and grades to KPS officers, but objects to giving ranks, he said.

"We only said that it should be discussed. Please give us time to study it," he said.
Taking a dig at the authorities for failure ensure induction of KPS officers into IPS for the last five years, he said, "There is vacancy of 50 IPS officers for past five years. Their induction have been caught into litigation. We did not take any initiative in this regard. If it is resolved, over 50 officers would be inducted into IPS."

Jammu and Kashmir is the only state in the country which has 50 per cent quota while rest states have only 30 per cent quota for induction into IPS and IAS.