Maharashtra govt’s power-sharing model passed down to the Mumbai police force

The Maharashtra government on Wednesday created a new post in the Mumbai Police forcemdashspecial commissioner of police This is similar to the post of deputy chief minister in terms of state administration In fact it is Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis who pushed for the new post The home department which is also held by Fadnavis in the order stated that the post has been created for effective supervision of the joint commissioners in the city police force The government has appointed IPS officer Deven Bharti as the first ever special CP of Mumbai policeThe special CPmdashan additional director general of policerank officermdashwill report to the CP while the five joint commissioners will report to the special CPThe most coveted post in the Maharashtra police force is that of Mumbai police commissioner for which top IPS officers are always in the race Even as far back as the nineties the post was said to be as lucrative as it was prestigious and candidates had to lobby hard to land the top jobThe office of the Mumbai police commissioner in Crawford MarketNow with the creation of the post of special commissioner sources in Mumbai police said the power of Mumbai CP Vivek Phansalkar will be divided Some also believe that Bharti a 1994 batch IPS officer is expected to report to the government ldquoWhat is the reaction of Phansalkar himselfrdquo asked P S Pasricha a retired IPS officerAlso Read Deven Bharti appointed as Special Commissioner of Mumbai PoliceConcern and scopeldquoThe jurisdiction of the special CP should be very well defined else there will be overlaps in the work Unless the special commissionerrsquos specific responsibilities are well defined and known it will be imprudent to comment on thisrdquo Pasricha told middaySources in the Mantralaya told midday ldquoHis Bhartirsquos old team members were given cream posts in Mumbai police before the government decided to create a new postrdquoHowever retired IPS officers said the new post will give opportunity to ADGrank officers whose vast experience of policing were not utilised so farldquoThere is a need to have the post of a special commissioner of ADGrank The post of Mumbai CP was upgraded to DG long ago and there was no body between the DG rank and inspector generalrank ie joint CPs So to fill up this vacuum the post of special commissioner has been createdrdquo said Pravin Dixit retired DGP of MaharashtraHe added ldquoTill now the experience of senior officers who were promoted to ADG rank was not utilised In other words we can say that their valuable experience of 30 years was being discarded and the government was losing outrdquoldquoSo the government seems to have rectified the lacunae by creating the post Now ADGrank officers can be roped in and their valuable experience can be utilisedrdquo he said adding ldquoThere is a hierarchy within the police department So the commissioner will be overall incharge of Mumbai police and the special commissioner will report to him The work of all the Joint CPs will be supervised by the special commissionerrdquoCue from DelhiThe post of special CP was created along the lines of Delhi police ldquoThe Commissioner of Delhi Police is equivalent to the DGP of a state And the special commissioners are of the ADG rank These Special Commissioners are the heads of different units such as law and order special cell security crime and economic offences wing vigilance special branch etc The commissioner of Delhi Police supervises the work of the special CPsrdquo said a senior executive who works closely with Delhi PoliceFormer Maharashtra DGP Dixit added that like Delhi Mumbai too needed multiple special CPs ldquoKeeping in mind the rising population and crime there is an urgent requirement to create new police stations in Mumbai And for better policing we need to have at least three special commissionersmdashadmin law and order and intelligencerdquo he saidFiveNo of joint commissioners in the Mumbai police1994Deven Bhartirsquos IPS batch