Senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer from Telangana VK Singh on Sunday issued a statement, hours after he was transferred by the state government.
The transfer came just days after Singh sought the Centre’s permission for premature retirement. The letter to New Delhi was preceded by the officer expressing regret that he was not promoted to the rank of Director General of Police (DGP), despite being eligible for it.
In the letter, the 1987 batch IPS officer stated that he did not “want to be a burden on the government”.
Singh had earlier served as the Director General for Prisons in the state and was presently director of Telangana State Police Academy (TSPA).
While transfer orders were issued on Sunday night, VK Singh was not given a new posting.
Many also speculated that he was seeking retirement to join politics, a claim which the senior IPS officer has dismissed.
“My letter to the Union Home Secretary seeking permission to quit the job has led to many questions, suppositions and conjectures in the mind of people and police officers. No, I’m not going to join politics at all,” Singh said in his statement.
In what seemed to be a jibe at the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi’s (TRS) repeated claim of developing a ‘Bangaru Telangana’ (Golden Telangana), Singh said, “I firmly believe that no politics or politicians can make any state a golden one, only people can do that.”
“While constitutionally people are the king-makers, in reality they are puppets in the hands of powerful people. We should not hold politics and politicians at all responsible for this. They are not at fault. Fault lies with the people,” he added.
Stating that he wanted to work among the people, Singh cited prominent personalities like Swami Vivekananda, Subhas Chandra Bose, Mahatma Gandhi and Anna Hazare.
“I firmly believe that any state can be made golden through good governance and we have the wisdom and resources to beat any foreign country. It is being shown in TSPA’s progress,” Singh said.
“I want to work in the field of education too, post quitting the service. Once the Government of India gives permission to quit, I will unfold my plan as to how I want to work among people. Being in service, it is not decent and dignified to be a loudmouth. Hope it will put doubt to rest in the minds of my friends and people,” he added.