Is the DG post of Fire Service, Civil Defense, and Home Guards (FS,CD&HG)  jinxed?

 

In recent memory, except for Prakash Mishra (Retd IPS:1977: OR) in 2016 who got it after retirement, the job has been seen as a punishment posting. For instance, Gujarat Police chief P C Thakur (IPS:1979: GJ) was abruptly shifted from Gujarat to Centre by appointing him abruptly on April 15, 2016, as DG of FS, CD & HG. Thakur refused to take up the assignment and never looked back. All it held a lesson; stay calm and composed while holding a high-profile public office.

 

Friday was a day of poetic justice for M Nageshwar Rao (IPS:1986:OR); the former interim chief of CBI and ADG, CBI. The services of  Rao were placed under Union Home Ministry as DG, Fire Service, Civil Defence, and Home Guards by "temporarily downgrading the post" to the level of additional director general till his retirement in July 2020. Presently, he is Additional Director General, CBI.

 

May it be recalled that immediately after infected bad blood started coursing through the arteries of the CBI, then director Alok Verma was unceremoniously transferred to the fire services. Verma declined to obey that order on the ground that he had already superannuated before being appointed the CBI director which was a fixed term office. And since he is transferred from the CBI, he was no longer qualified to hold the regular term office of DG Fire Services.

 

When Verma was transferred from CBI, Rao was given charge of his office on an ad hoc basis. After taking over the charge, the first thing Rao did was to transfer 13 SP and ASP level officers at one go which was later revoked in January 2019. He did it twice just to affront Verma. The transfer issue is now pending in the courts.

 

The Directorate General of Civil Defence was established in 1962 under the Home Ministry for all policy and planning matters related to civil defense and its running partners Home Guards and Fire Services.

 

What the recent development underlines is that no job is high or low. It's a doer's contribution that shines or blemishes a job. 

(By Rakesh Ranjan)