Explained: How scrapping of police naik post in Maharashtra will benefit 45,000 constables

The Maharashtra government took the decision to ensure each Police Constable (PC) who joins the force will retire at least as a Police Sub Inspector (PSI) – a two-star officer – in the force

The Maharashtra government Friday announced they have scrapped the position of a Police Naik in the force. Why was the decision made and what will the impact it will have on the over two-lakh strong force ?

What was the decision announced by the Maharashtra government regarding police ranks in the state?

Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil tweeted that a proposal sent by the Maharashtra DGP Sanjay Pandey to scrap the post of Police Naik (PN) was approved by them in a meeting on Thursday.

How does scrapping of the Police Naik post benefit the constabulary?

The Maharashtra government took the decision to ensure each Police Constable (PC) who joins the force will retire at least as a Police Sub Inspector (PSI) – a two-star officer – in the force. As of now a PC gets promoted to PN after around 10 years of service and later in another 10 years they become Head Constables (HC) and eventually retire as Assistant Sub Inspectors (ASI) – one-star officers – after around 30-plus years of service.

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Now in the absence of the PN post, Constables will directly get promoted to Head Constables in 10 years. These Head Constables in turn will get promoted to ASI’s in another 10 years, ie. 20 years of service. And in next 10 years i.e. 30 years of their service, they will be eligible to be promoted as Police Sub Inspectors. Retiring as PSI will mean a higher pension as compared to retirement as ASI apart from having more powers like investigating cases.

The decision will have an impact on the nearly 45,000 constables in the state police force.

So, will the cops who will now be eligible to retire as PSIs have to give internal exams to be promoted?

All promotions will be done based on length of service and merit. There will be no examinations like the ones that existed if they wanted to go from Assistant Sub Inspectors to Police Sub Inspector.

How does this change the working of the police force?

This change now brings in more head constables at early stages of their career to become investigating officers as head constables are empowered to investigate crimes unlike Police Naiks. Officers say this will increase their investigating force by three fold.

Have there been any other changes proposed in the structure of the force?

The DGP office is in the process of sending another proposal where they have suggested that the rank of Assistant Police Inspector (ASI) be scrapped. Currently, a cop who joins the force as a Police Sub Inspector can go upto Assistant Commissioner of Police rank before they retire. With the API post being scrapped, these officers would then be able to go from PSI to Police Inspector to ACP and eventually retire at Superintendent of Police (SP) rank. An SP has more wide-ranging powers and these officers would also benefit from a higher pension. This proposal, too, is likely to be sent soon to the Home Department for approval.

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