Short-staffed CBI gets four new SPs

The government has appointed four Superintendents of Police (SPs) in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which is facing a shortage of manpower.

Three of the four newly appointed SPs are the officers of the Indian Police Service (IPS) while the fourth is an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer.

The newly inducted IPS officers in the CBI are Santosh Hadimani, Murali Rambha and Sonal Chandra—all from Tamil Nadu cadre.

Vidyut Vikash, appointed as the CBI SP, is a 2008-batch IRS (Customs and Central Excise) officer.

All the four officers will have an initial tenure of four years, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said in an order.

Earlier in March, the government had appointed five SPs in the CBI.

Of these five, three were IPS officers and two were IRS officers.

The CBI had recently invited applications from the retired and serving police officers of the rank of inspectors and above for appointment as an inspector for a period of one year to meet the shortage of manpower in the department.

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 posts lying vacant in the CBI and asked the government to take proactive steps to ensure that the investigation agency does not remain understaffed.

It had suggested 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.