The Jammu and Kashmir government has directed that district senior superintendent of police cannot be summoned to either Jammu or Srinagar without the state home department’s permission, PTI reported on Wednesday.

The circular, issued by Principal Secretary (Home) RK Goyal on July 16, read: “In case a district senior superintendent of police is required for a meeting in the civil secretariat, a request to that extant shall be made to Principal Secretary (Home).”

The circular said the government had noticed that senior officers often called some SSPs to Srinagar and Jammu for meetings. “The practice disrupts the functioning of district offices....as the presence of these officers is imperative at district headquarters and such meetings should be avoided as far as possible,” it added.

It directed all administrative secretaries, the director general of police, divisional commissioners and inspector generals of police to ensure that district senior superintendents of police are not “unnecessarily called for meetings”.

The circular also advised the officers to use video conferencing to interact with the district SSPs. Inspector generals of police can also regularly visit the district headquarters instead of making the SSP travel, it said.

Senior police officials, however, called the circular a hindrance. Often, phone lines and internet are down in the state, making it hard to conduct video conferences, they said. Besides, they added, telephonic or video conferences could compromise the security of an anti-terror operation planned in the secrecy of the operational room.