In face-off with govt, Gujarat top cop slams latest notice
A day after the state government served him a showcause for allegedly handing out cash rewards to his juniors without sanction, senior IPS officer Rahul Sharma Tuesday said he had done nothing wrong and that he would reply to the notice.
The state government had sent him a showcause notice for “irregularities” during his stint in Rajkot where he served for three years as DIG (Armed Units) before being shifted as DIG (Armed Units) in Vadodara.
The notice was sent to Sharma after additional DGP (Armed Units) Tirthraj submitted a report to the state’s Home Department recently, stating that the DIG had handed cash rewards to a few inspectors and SRP personnel “without following administrative procedures”.
Principal Secretary (Home) S K Nanda said, “We have sent him a notice regarding the irregularities during his tenure as DIG (Armed Units)”.
Sharma has 15 days to reply. When contacted, he said, “I felt SRP personnel who worked well should be rewarded, so I gave them Rs 100 each in cash. How does that become a misconduct? A petty amount of Rs 100 was given to these personnel as per SRP rules to motivate them.”
Sharma said he had spent a total of Rs 15,000 in three years (2009 to 2012) in giving 50 cash rewards to SRPF personnel.
“I have administrative powers as a DIG to appreciate good work of my junior officers. So, where is the administrative lapse here?” he added.
A few months ago, the state home department had served Sharma a notice for
