Hyderabad: With the ongoing financial crisis, the state government is keen to appoint retired officers in various departments, including retired IPS officers and non-cadre police officers, as Officer on Special Duty (OSD), instead of providing an opportunity to in-service employees.
A similar trend was observed in the erstwhile undivided AP government, where some retired police officials were appointed.
The Intelligence wing has four retired police officers working as OSDs, with full functional powers. Former inspector general M.K. Singh, who is chief of the Intelligence Security Wing as OSD had retired in 2017 while heading the same wing.
There are three other retired officers in the ranks of Superintendent of Police and Additional SP, working as OSDs in the Intelligence wing. P. Kishan Rao, who retired as SP has been looking after Political Intelligence for the last 13 years, while K. Jagan Mohan Reddy, who retired as Additional SP is currently OSD looking after Regional Intelligence (Hyderabad), and Narsing Rao, who retired as Additional SP is OSD in the Social Intelligence Bureau that looks into issues concerning left wing extremism.
Mr M.K. Singh looks after the security of VIPs in the state, including High Court judges, the Chief Minister and other ministers, the President, Prime Minister and Union home minister when they visit the state.
There are several other OSDs - in the Anti-Corruption Bureau, a retired Additional SP who as OSD looks after security issues related to the Hyderabad Metro Rail Ltd, and in the Road Transport Corporation, the HMWS&SB, and TRANSCO departments.
Though there are several officers of IG and DIG rank, the government has handed over the important wings to retired officers, which has been criticised because in the case of untoward incidents, the retired officers will not be held responsible.
Recently, the police department requested the state government to utilise the services of recently retired IPS officers by appointing them as OSDs.
A senior police officer in the rank of IG said: “The state has a sufficient number of officers of IG rank and also of the rank of DIG, so the decision to give key posts to retired officers is surprising. Not just that, but they also would get all the official benefits on par with the serving officers.”
