Aurangabad: Senior police officers in the state, belonging to the Maratha community, have claimed that they are receiving calls from the police administration over the past two days asking about their sub-caste.Officers in the administration said they were collating information regarding all Maratha community policemen over the past few months based on government orders. Information about policemen from constable to sub-inspector level has already been sent to the government, they told TOI.A superintendent of police said it was frustrating that an officer of the rank of assistant inspector general of police was calling up senior officers from the Maratha community to ask about their sub-caste, especially since this information has already been disclosed in the service books.Echoing this sentiment, a deputy superintendent of police said some written communication has recently been sent to all police unit heads to share the information in a given format. “Directly making calls and asking an officer to disclose his caste and sub-caste is not good. It has not gone down well with many of us,” the officer said.Another superintendent of police said they had received an internal communication signed by the ADG (establishment) seeking details about their caste and sub-caste in a prescribed format. “Getting phone calls during the current law and order situations has been misconstrued by some of our officers,” he said.Meanwhile, the directorate general of police’s office refuted claims that the information was being collected to keep an eye on the officers from the Maratha community.Inspector general of police Rajkumar Vhatkar shared a written statement which said that the state government, on February 12, had sent a communication seeking details about staff in different government departments. This was done to help take a decision on the Maratha reservation issue, he said.“Accordingly, the state police too started collecting details about the total number of serving policemen and officers belonging to the Maratha community. The information about the total number of staff, from constables to police inspectors, has been shared with the government on March 9 this year,” Vhatkar said.“As of date, the process of collecting information of deputy superintendents and superintendents of police is under way. On July 24, calls were made to several officers for taking a follow-up on the details,” Vhatkar said.On July 20, the state government communicated to the DGP office urgently seeking details of senior police officers of the rank of deputy SP and SP.

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