Lucknow, Feb 18 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) A.K. Jain’s office has directed police officials across the state to buy and put up framed photographs of the police chief in their offices.
Assistant to the DGP, B.P. Jogdand has written to all police officials to ensure that the ‘officially approved’ pictures of the police chief are purchased from a specific studio at Lucknow and then framed and put up on walls of police offices across the state.
Arvind Kumar Jain, an Indian Police Services (IPS) officer of the 1979 batch, has just over a month left for retirement.
The DGP office defended the directive, saying that this was not a new thing being started by the police.
Officials, however, see this as a waste of money as each picture of the DGP is available at a price of Rs.275.
Social activist Nutan Thakur has written to the police chief, seeking withdrawal of the order.
“This is a complete waste of money and an order of no consequence,” Thakur told IANS referring to the short tenure of the incumbent police chief who retires March 31.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said the DGP should focus on crime control and maintaining law and order.
“People are being gunned down in front of a judge in court rooms, heists of several crores are taking place and the police is dragging its feet on several murders in the state capital. In such circumstances, the UP DGP should focus more on his professional duties rather than such issues of self promotion and branding,” the BJP leader said.