Odisha Police reverses decision, allows constables to change their parent cadre

Reversing its earlier decision to repatriate constables to their parent district, the Odisha Police has invited applications from constables opting to change their parent cadre.

The State Police Headquarters recently issued a letter stating that the ‘Odisha Police Service order, 2021, prescribes provisions for change of cadre of constables from one district to another’.

As per the recruitment rules of Odisha Police Service for constables, the personnel applying for cadre change must have completed eight years of service as on January 1, 2022. He/she should have completed minimum six years of service as on January 1, 2022, in the parent cadre including the period spent in Special Operation Group (SOG) and Special Intelligence Wing (SIW).

In a further development, the police headquarters has revoked its earlier order to revert and repatriate havildars/criminal intelligence (CI) havildars to their parent districts. The State Police Headquarters had on August 16 last year asked SPs to revert some havildars/CI havildars to the rank of constables and repatriate them to their parent districts.

Earlier in 2021, the State police allowed havildars/CI havildars, who were reverted to the rank of constable and repatriated to their parent districts, to officiate as havildar/CI havildar in the parent districts in the existing vacancies but without any right to future claims. In case there were no vacancies in the parent cadre, the havildars/CI havildars reverted to the rank of constables, were asked to continue as constables.  

This had triggered a huge resentment among the havildars/CI havildars promoted from the rank of constable during their deputation in other districts. Some of them even approached the Orissa High Court against the decision. After examining the matter, the court quashed the reversion and repatriation orders.