Safi Ehsan Rizvi, a 1989 batch IPS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre, has always been considered one of the best of his batch. He is currently an officer on special duty (OSD) to Union home minister P. Chidambaram, and has generally been regarded as an upright and honest officer. But Rizvi, who is also a product of IIM-A, didn’t have it very easy in his home state. Refusing to toe the line of his political bosses, Rizvi was sidelined and made SP in charge of motor vehicles.
Rizvi is not the only one sidelined thus. The service is littered with officers who take a professional approach to work but are sidelined and given posts specially created by state governments to ensure they do work of no significance. This leads to a perceived “shortage” at critical posts. Officers argue that if such posts are abolished, or IPS officers are not posted there, the service will never face a dearth.
However, this being a state subject, the home ministry looks the other way. So upright officers are frequently transferred in some states and given tasks where there is no requirement for their policing skills.
States like Uttar Pradesh lead in the dubious distinction of having many such posts where officers are left to rot while the pliable serve in key posts on which their political masters wish to exercise control. The office of SP (food cell) in Uttar Pradesh has little to do with policing. However, Jasbir Singh, an IPS officer, found himself cooling his heels in that post for three years because he had dared to take on a dreaded don who became an MLA. In Haryana, one chief minister created the post of SP (cooperatives) to shunt out an honest officer who had challenged corruption in his government.
