250 Gurdaspur cops shifted in a day to ‘fight drugs’

The district police chief has shifted 250 police personnel in a day, with scores of them having served at the same place for the past several years.

The transfers have been effected by SSP Aditya under a two-pronged strategy aimed at the “long-pending” rationalisation of the force and enhancing the intensity of its fight against the scourge of heroin in the border district.

The move is unprecedented as never before have so many officials been shifted in one go. More transfers are reportedly on the cards.

A majority of these police personnel have been sent to each of the 12 police stations in an attempt to strengthen the force there. The remaining have been sent to the Police Lines.

Three SHOs, too, have been shifted. They are Gurmeet Singh (Gurdaspur City), Onkar Singh (Behrampur) and Mohan Lal (Puranashala). The in-charge of the Jaura Chhattran police post has also been removed.

Vehicles of ASI, constable impounded

The SSP impounded the cars of two policemen — an ASI and a constable — for allegedly violating traffic rules. During a check, the officer came across the vehicles which had been modified by bending rules. “The guardians of law should not bend the laws they are bound to protect,” said the officer.

The official line is that the SHOs “had failed in tracing, preventing and detecting crime”. The unofficial stance, however, is that their proximity to politicians was acting as an impediment in their work.

Sources said lists were being prepared for the past few days and the entire exercise was kept a secret.

“The department has now been cleansed of its warts. There were many police personnel who had been staying at one place for long and no police chief had dared to shift them. These transfers may have come as a shock to many but it was clearly the need of the hour. Our fight against heroin and other drugs, too, will now be taken to another level,” said an SP-rank officer.

There were apprehensions that the battle against Pakistani drones and drugs was not being fought as intensely as it should have been. Dorangla, Behrampur and Kalanaur are the favourite areas where Pakistani state and non-state actors send in drones carrying payloads of made-in-Afghanistan heroin. A majority of the personnel serving in these police stations have now been shifted and a “new look has been given to the force”.

SSP Aditya downplayed the transfers. He said he had applied the “performance review” system before taking any decision. “These parameters included the battle against drugs, public grievance redressal, number of pending complaints, number of pending investigations and the fight against crime and criminals. These who scored have been retained while those who failed in these parameters have been eased out,” he said.

Meanwhile, 60 policemen have been given “certificates of appreciation” for the “laudable work done by them”.

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