STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: S P Vaid was on Wednesday appointed as the new Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police in place of K Rajendra Kumar, whose extended tenure comes to an end on December 31 while the State Cabinet approved the promotion of 17 IAS officers.
57-year-old Vaid, at present Special Director General (Law and Order), will be in office till October 2019.
Vaid, who played a major role in controlling the unrest in the Kashmir Valley following the killing of militant Burhan Wani, was a frontrunner for the post.
“My focus will be on keeping the flag of the police force flying high in the state,” Vaid said after his appointment.
While police force will be tough against the perpetrators of violence and terrorists “I will ensure that no common man is harassed. My idea is to make the police force more and more people friendly,” he said.
Vaid is the second officer from Jammu who has risen to the post of Director General of Police after M M Khajuria, who held the position in 1985. However, he is the first regular IPS recruit to become the Director General of Police from Jammu, while Khajuria had been absorbed in the IPS from the state cadre.
In the aftermath of the killing of Burhan Wani, law and order situation in the valley had spiralled out of control and the state government, while taking a serious note of it, had shifted him from the position of DG (Prisons) and made him Special DG (Law and order).
After taking over the charge, Vaid camped in the Valley and initiated various measures, including police-people interaction programmes to help restore normalcy.
Vaid was seriously injured when militants ambushed his vehicle in March 1999 near Sopore crossing on Srinagar- Baramulla Highway. He was the then range DIG of Baramulla- Kupwara in North Kashmir.
During his stint in the Valley, he started Police- Community Partnership Group (PCPG), a Community Policing Project, for the first time in the state of Jammu and Kashmir which helped redress public grievances and improved police- public relations.
He also had a stint at the Bureau of Police Research and Development at the Centre where he contributed to various projects, especially in conducting a detailed study on Private Security Agencies (Regulation) Act.
In recognition of his outstanding performance during his deputation at the Centre, Vaid was decorated with President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service.
He is also a recipient of Indian Police Medals for Gallantry and for Meritorious Service, Indian Wound Medal, Sher-e-Kashmir Medal for Meritorious Service, Indian Army Chief’s Citation, Parakram Padak Medal and Antrik Suraksha Seva Padak by the Home Ministry.
Meanwhile, The State Cabinet approved promotion of 17 IAS Officers. Shaleen Kabra, Bipul Pathak and Ashok Kumar Parmar have been promoted to the Higher Administrative Grade of IAS (Rs 67,000-79,000 with annual increment of 3 per cent) with effect from January 1, 2017.
Consequent upon their promotion, Shaleen Kabra and Bipul Pathak are designated as Principal Secretaries to the Government in their respective departments.
Cabinet approved promotion of Sanjeev Verma, Dr. Mandeep Kumar Bhandari, Anal Kumar Gupta, Raj Kumar Bhagat, Nirmal Sharma and Khurshid Ahmad Shah to the Super Time Scale of IAS (Rs 37,400-67,000 + GP of Rs 10,000) with effect from from 01-01-2017.
Consequent upon their promotion, Sanjeev Verma, Dr. Mandeep Kumar Bhandari, Anal Kumar Gupta, Raj Kumar Bhagat and Khurshid Ahmad Shah are designated as Commissioner/Secretaries to the Government in their respective departments.
Cabinet approved promotion of Mandeep Kour, Pandurang K Pole, Salma Hamid, Tasneem Maajid and Farooq Ahmad Shah to the Selection Grade of IAS (Rs 37,400-67,000 + GP of Rs 8,700) w.e.f from 01-01-2017.
Cabinet also approved promotion of Avny Lavasa, Anushal Garg and Vikas Kundal to the Senior Time Scale of IAS (15,600-39,100+GP of Rs 6,600) w.e.f from 01-01-2017.
