Backdraft Leadership vacuum scorches Fire Service

With a nonexistent top cadre, time ripe to bring back tradition of appointing an IPS officer as AMC DyMC to take charge of Ahmedabad Fire Services

- Brendan.Dabhi

"In what can be described as the uniformed service in Gujarat in complete disarray, the discontent at the leaderless and rudderless Ahmedabad Fire and Emergency Services (AF&ES), is palpable.

Rife with indiscipline and dismal morale, the firefighting force in Ahmedabad, which is severely understaffed and overworked, is running with a virtually nonexistent top cadre for the last several years. This has taken a severe toll on the Fire Service.

So much so that there are whispered demands of change in administrative structure with some hoping that the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation would once again have an IPS officer holding the post of Deputy Municipal Commissioner for Fire Service, others seeking determined efforts from IAS officers and still those that hope that a technical officer can be the insider that can help revive the collapsing structure before it's too late.

At National Level

Officers from the IPS have always served in the Fire Services. In fact, currently, the Director General (DG) of Fire Services, Civil Defence and Home Guards in India, is 1989 batch Gujarat cadre officer Vivek Srivastava, who was appointed on January 1, 2024.

At States Level