Govt appoints four SPs in short-staffed CBI

The government has appointed four superintendents of police in the short-staffed Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), according to a Personnel Ministry order. Of these four newly inducted SPs, three -- Santosh Hadimani, Murali Rambha and Sonal Chandra -- are Tamil Nadu cadre Indian Police Service (IPS) officers from different batches.

Vidyut Vikash, a 2008-batch officer of Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise), has also been appointed as SP in the central probe agency, the order said. All these officers will have an initial tenure of four years, it said. Earlier in March, the government had appointed five SPs in the CBI. Of these five, three were IPS officers and two were from the Indian Revenue Service.

The appointments of IRS officers assume significance as the CBI is probing various high-profile financial fraud cases, including the over Rs 13,000 crore scam in Punjab National Bank. The CBI, which is facing a staff crunch, has recently sought to fill different posts on contractual basis. It sought applications from retired and serving police officers of the rank of inspectors and above for appointment as inspector on contract for one year.

It is also looking for suitable candidates for the posts of deputy adviser (insurance) on deputation basis. A Parliamentary Committee in its report tabled in Parliament in January this year had expressed concerns over vacant posts in the CBI and asked the government to take proactive steps to ensure that it does not remain understaffed.

"Shortage of personnel at various levels in the CBI is a perennial problem. The Committee has expressed its concern on this on several occasions. Vacancy in any organisation, to a large extent, can be anticipated well in advance and proactive efforts should be initiated to complete necessary procedure to fill up the vacancies on time," the panel had said in its report. "The CBI seems to have failed in anticipating such a situation," it had said.

The committee had noted that increasing number of cases pertaining to areas like internal security, cyber crimes, corruption, financial irregularities is being referred to the CBI and the nation cannot afford to have its premier investigative agency understaffed and thus ill-prepared. It had asked the government to consider making terms of deputation to the CBI more rewarding in order to retain capable officers and to attract best officers from state police forces, central paramilitary forces and the Intelligence Bureau, among others.